[kelnos]

It's not the same at all, and I don't think the differences are pedantic.

The water heater runs the same regardless of whether it's being tested or is running normally in someone's home. Really, this test "cheat" exposed that the test itself was not measuring what it thought it was measuring; and hell, a manufacturer could accidentally cheat with their design.

The car would run differently if it detected it was in a test situation. In the real world, with a real driver, it would run in a way that would give different test results (if you were in a position to run the test while it's being driven).