# legionnaires' disease in hot water tank



## stoop14 (Feb 5, 2012)

I was off to school for 2 months and turned my hotwater tank electricity off(its a electric hot water tank) now i'm back and was wondering if there is anything special i should do? Or just run all my taps for a while, let the water in tank come up to temp above 140 degrees and dump it and do that a few times?


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

140ºF will kill Legionella bacteria...
90% dead within 2 minutes....


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## stoop14 (Feb 5, 2012)

ya i knew 140 killed it, but i was wondering if the inside of the tank would or any scale would hold the disease and i would need to put bleach into my tank


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## mtfallsmikey (Jan 11, 2010)

My water treatment company tests both DW and tower water twice a year for Legionella. One fella on the HeatingHelp website contracted it in a similar fashion as the OP described his HWH.


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## stoop14 (Feb 5, 2012)

mtfallsmikey said:


> My water treatment company tests both DW and tower water twice a year for Legionella. One fella on the HeatingHelp website contracted it in a similar fashion as the OP described his HWH.


So turnung the hot water tank to above 140 and dumping the 140 degree water a few times wont fix it?


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

stoop14 said:


> I was off to school for 2 months and turned my hotwater tank electricity off(its a electric hot water tank) now i'm back and was wondering if there is anything special i should do? Or just run all my taps for a while, let the water in tank come up to temp above 140 degrees and dump it and do that a few times?


Are you sure the heater is at 140? You would have had to set it there, most heaters are by law required to be set at 125. When they leave the factory.


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## stoop14 (Feb 5, 2012)

PLUMBER_BILL said:


> Are you sure the heater is at 140? You would have had to set it there, most heaters are by law required to be set at 125. When they leave the factory.


yes i turned it up to 150 degrees


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## pilot light (Apr 21, 2012)

stoop14 said:


> ya i knew 140 killed it, but i was wondering if the inside of the tank would or any scale would hold the disease and i would need to put bleach into my tank


 code is 130 in Canada and hospitals are 122!:laughing:


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## mtfallsmikey (Jan 11, 2010)

stoop14 said:


> So turnung the hot water tank to above 140 and dumping the 140 degree water a few times wont fix it?


It should. In this particular case, HWH was set at 120, but was not used for a while due to it being a vacation home.


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## stoop14 (Feb 5, 2012)

Code is 140 for electric tanks in canada


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## pilot light (Apr 21, 2012)

stoop14 said:


> Code is 140 for electric tanks in canada


 My bad had to checkout the NPC again good job.


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