Why is my water heater getting hotter than the thermostat setting?
Water heaters can overheat beyond their set temperature when a thermostat fails or sticks, causing dangerously hot water at the tap. Since renting a home limits your ability to service major appliances yourself, this requires contacting your landlord immediately to prevent scalding risks and potential equipment damage.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Turning it off manually
- 2Contacting the landlord
- 3Checking error codes and settings
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/Plumbing2 people · September 2026
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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