Man, my buddy learned this the hard way in Barcelona. He skipped the lock thinking his stuff was safe in a hostel room, came back and his camera was gone. Six bucks would've saved him a week of misery.

You ever watch your buddy level his shots with a credit card for a month before realizing his tamper was uneven?

Honestly, I gotta push back on this. You said the kettle clicks when it boils, so you assumed the water was at boiling temp. But if your tap water is coming out at 185, that means your kettle is clicking way early, which sounds like a broken thermostat, not a water problem. The real mistake might be that you never questioned why your kettle clicks before it actually boils. That cheap thermometer just showed you what a $10 replacement kettle woulda fixed anyway. And bitter coffee can come from a million things, but blaming the water temp when your equipment is clearly off feels like a stretch.