I think my water heater runs longer than it should

[Dawg]

I've noticed lately the meter on the electric box will spin rather fast when most of the appliances and such are not running. So I started flipping breakers. It seemed like when I flipped the water heater breaker did the meter slow down.

Also the water seems to be hot...almost to the point to where it's unbearable to keep your hands in it.

Both of these conclusions lead me to believe either the water heater is running longer than it should or it's running hotter.....or both.

How can I turn this thing down? I think it's driving my electric bill up the wall. Thanks.

[LazyPup]

Electric water heaters have a thermostat ajustment screw on the thermostats under the access cover. I would stongly recommend you turn the breaker off before opening the cover because there are exposed electrical contacts on the thermotats.

The adjustment screws rotate left (coldest) to right (hottest) and are roughly indexed by temperature.

There are separate thermostates for the upper and lower heating elements and they should both the adusted to the same temp.

The plumbing code limits residential water heaters to 125deg unless their is an anti-scald valve on the shower.