Hot water heater

I just sanitized my camper. Ran some bleach through. Since I want to drain it for travelling, should I also drain the hot water heater or just leave water in it. also which way should the valves coming off the hot water heater be turned. Then when I want to use the hot water heater, what do I do?

I do not bypass my hot water tank when sanitizing. I do remove the anode and flush the tank before sanitizing. At the end of sanitizing I replace the anode. I do not turn the heater element on during the process. A lot of folks share opinion the tank has to be bypassed, to me it is a tank, the bleach mixture is diluted.

The hot water heater needs to be bypassed when using RV antifreeze, both because you don't really need to fill the 6-gallon tank with antifreeze and because the antifreeze will corrode the anode rod very quickly. However, the HW tank should not be bypassed when sanitizing as it also needs to be sanitized to avoid any bacteria growth, both in it and in the lines leading to and from it. as stated above, flushing it to get the remnants of anode rod corrosion out is a good thing to do also.

Good point Mike, never thought of the fact of chlorine continually sanitizing the tank IF you are on municipal water.  We have always used well water in our 177 and funny thing is I never sanitized my water lines or tanks (dealer did that for me when we picked it up March 2011) until furpod told me I ought to and that was at the ERU in Traverse City during the summer of 2016).  So maybe I should be a bit more proactive in that department OR start using municipal water once in awhile.

Not to be a PITA, but isn't more correctly a COLD water heater? After all, once it's hot, then it's just a hot water tank.