hot water gettin' hotter

We have an electric hot water heater. Its about a year old. (not near it today so don't know the brand).

We noticed over the past week or so that the hot water temp has increased 30% or more. In both the bath and shower, the hot water supply doesn't have to be open near as much as it did to reach a comfortable temp.

Is this a potential hot water heater thermostat issue?

As a side note, 95% of water supply lines in the house were converted from glavanized to copper six months ago. Both hot and cold pressure seems not to have changed since the hot water temp has changed. We did leave a foot or two of galvanized where the lines run though the foundation to connect to the hot water heater because of access issue. This'll be replaced when the hot water heater's replaced.

thanks for any advice.

It could be a problem, it might be normal. As summer starts to come on strong, the "cold" water is warmer in most places, thus, the tempering effect isn't as great; i.e., you don't need as much hot water to counter the very cold winter's incoming cold. The only real way to tell is to take the temperature of all hot at a faucet (probably not at the shower since it may have internal limiters that prevent all hot). Compare that temp with the thermostat setting of the tank. It is possible, but rare, I think, for the thermostat on the heater to fail and let the water get much hotter than the set point. Also, are you sure that someone didn't move the knob on the HW tank?

Jim,

You may be a genius. I used a thermometer and measured the temp of the hot water. It matched the setting on the thermostats on the hot water heater. It set at nearly 150. I backed it off to around 130.

Its been hot here in the South, so perhaps the cold water's gotten warm enough to let us tell the difference in the mix of hot and cold.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks so much.

temperature

I haven't seen a water heater that had degree numbers on the dial for decades, so I assume you are guessing what the thermostat settings were.

This one has temp settings on both thermostats. Starts at 125 and goes to 150. Its about a yr old.