diff --git a/esphome/components/mdns/mdns_component.h b/esphome/components/mdns/mdns_component.h
index 241c32079e..141e42d976 100644
--- a/esphome/components/mdns/mdns_component.h
+++ b/esphome/components/mdns/mdns_component.h
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ class MDNSComponent : public Component {
   /// Add a dynamic TXT value and return pointer to it for use in MDNSTXTRecord
   const char *add_dynamic_txt_value(const std::string &value) {
     this->dynamic_txt_values_.push_back(value);
-    return this->dynamic_txt_values_.back().c_str();
+    return this->dynamic_txt_values_[this->dynamic_txt_values_.size() - 1].c_str();
   }
 
   /// Storage for runtime-generated TXT values (MAC address, user lambdas)
diff --git a/esphome/core/helpers.h b/esphome/core/helpers.h
index 309c2869e3..e06f2d15ef 100644
--- a/esphome/core/helpers.h
+++ b/esphome/core/helpers.h
@@ -146,15 +146,6 @@ template<typename T, size_t N> class StaticVector {
   T &operator[](size_t i) { return data_[i]; }
   const T &operator[](size_t i) const { return data_[i]; }
 
-  T &back() {
-    assert(count_ > 0 && "back() called on empty StaticVector");
-    return data_[count_ - 1];
-  }
-  const T &back() const {
-    assert(count_ > 0 && "back() called on empty StaticVector");
-    return data_[count_ - 1];
-  }
-
   // For range-based for loops
   iterator begin() { return data_.begin(); }
   iterator end() { return data_.begin() + count_; }