I must have missed the part of the post where the OP said he was diagnosed with Legionnaires Disease by a medical doctor and spent time in a hospital being treated.

Legionnaires Disease is not contracted by drinking hot water!

Water heaters, like everything else (including ourselves), require regular maintenance. There are many articles that can be found online that detail this, and will help extend the life of the tank. This includes regular flushing (simple) to anode or element replacement (relatively easy, but require standard tools). It might be worth a look.

"Villages Water Experiencing Legionaires Disease"? LBren, with all due respect, assuming you are correct and you contracted this disease from your water heater, you did not get it from The Villages water system, you got it from your own water after it was infected by the water heater. The headline in your post is disingenuous and you should amend it.

Lots of hits on google about this. Here is one from OSHA:

Legionnaires' Disease eTool: Domestic Hot-Water Systems

biker:

thy are addressing large industrial water heaters used in hospitals, etc

I am glad that Administrator has changed the post title already. I did not know how to do that. Thank you for your advice.

The OSHA page I posted makes reference to domestic hot water heaters - those are the ones in your house. They do also reference industrial water heaters.

That's very understanding, LBren. All the best to you.

And I hope you are feeling better.

After reading the OSHA link, it sounds like you had better get your hot water system flushed and treated, or you'll be sick again.

That was my thought also.

I have never used the hot water from our hot water tank for cooking, making tea or coffee or for any other direct consumption for that manner.

I know you may think my advice is a little off here for various reasons. Please do not service your hot water heater. Replace it. I offer this advice as if you were a close friend or family member. Don't make me explain. Just go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy it and have them install it. No fuss no muss no disease no 2nd or 3rd service call. Its money well spent. To the OP I'm glad you survived Legionnaires. Many people in N.J. were not so fortunate.

My husband had Legionnaire's disease. He almost died. He lost 20 lbs in a week from sweating from continuous fever of over 104 for over 5 days. He was in constant delirium. At first they didn't know what he had. The only thing they could do was try different medicines and hoped one would work. Cipro on the 5th day was the magic. I thought he would never make it. They sent out a sample to CDC who, within a month stated it was Legionnaire's. He got it from being near an air conditioning unit that was being cleaned that was filled with mold. So if, there was mold in your water heater......that could be your answer.

That’s what I had been going through! I went ahead and had my Water Heater deep cleaned through richardahhandyman dot com. You should contact him to get yours done.