City of Tempe
How do I check a City of Tempe water bill for a leak?
Tempe gives its customers two tools for this: a usage graph printed on the monthly bill covering the past thirteen months, and a WaterSmart customer portal that shows hourly and daily use and can send leak and high-use alerts. Between them, a Tempe customer can usually date a leak to a week rather than to a billing period.
Reading the bill
One monthly bill, with its own graph
Tempe bills water, sewer and solid waste monthly on one municipal statement.
Separate the water line from the others first. A combined statement responds to several things at once, and a leak only touches one of them.
The bill carries a thirteen-month usage graph, so each month sits beside the same month a year earlier. That comparison is what makes a leak visible: a Valley summer is supposed to be higher than a Valley winter, but this July is not supposed to be higher than last July with nothing changed.
Read the unit printed on your own statement before comparing figures with somebody in a neighbouring city, because the unit is not the same everywhere in the Valley.
The cycle
Monthly, with hourly detail in the portal
The billing period runs between meter reads. What makes Tempe different is that the portal is not limited to the billing period: hourly and daily figures let you see whether water moved at three in the morning, which is the clearest possible signature of a leak in an otherwise sleeping house.
The portal and the meter
WaterSmart alerts, and the box in the ground
Tempe's WaterSmart customer portal lets customers monitor hourly and daily water use, look at usage patterns over time, and sign up for leak and high-use alerts with thresholds they set themselves. An alert is a prompt to go and look rather than a finding in itself.
The meter is the check that confirms it. Everything off, lid up carefully, watch the low-flow indicator, and take two readings an hour apart. Movement with everything off means water is leaving on your side of the meter, whatever the portal says.
In the usage history
What hourly data tells you that a bill cannot
| What the portal shows | What it suggests | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Use in every hour, including through the night | A continuous loss | Toilets with dye, then the pool auto-fill and irrigation |
| Use in a block at the same time each night | An irrigation or equipment schedule | The controller's program and the pool timer |
| This month above the same month last year | Something added since then | What changed, then the meter with everything off |
What they publish
The winter months behind the wastewater charge
Tempe's published rate information describes the single-family residential wastewater charge as being based on a winter average taken from the January through March statements, rather than on each month's water use. A leak running in that window therefore has an effect that outlasts the repair.
We are not going to state what Tempe does about a bill after a leak is repaired, because we could not confirm it from the City's own published pages, and it is exactly the sort of thing that is worth hearing from the City rather than from us.
Billing questions are between you and your provider, and what they do about them is theirs to decide. Our part is establishing whether the property is losing water and where, in writing.
Straight answers
Tempe billing questions
What is the WaterSmart portal in Tempe?
It is Tempe's customer portal for water use, showing hourly and daily figures and usage patterns over time, with leak and high-use alerts that customers can set thresholds for. It is the fastest way for a Tempe customer to date a leak.
How does the bill itself show a leak?
Through the thirteen-month usage graph printed on it, which sets each month beside the same month a year earlier. A leak shows as a month that is higher than its counterpart last year with nothing changed in the household.
Which months affect my Tempe wastewater charge?
Tempe's published rate information describes the single-family residential wastewater charge as based on a winter average taken from January through March statements. Confirm the detail with the City for your own account.
The portal says I used water all night. Is that a leak?
It is the classic signature of one, because household use comes in bursts and a leak does not stop. Dye-test the toilets first, then close the pool auto-fill and the irrigation, and confirm at the meter.
Tell us what the water is doing
A screenshot of the hourly usage from the portal, and whether the meter moved with everything switched off.
Send us a night's worth of hourly data
Water moving at three in the morning usually tells us what we are looking for.
5.0 on Google
What customers in the Phoenix valley have written. The words are theirs, on listings we cannot edit.
“Humberto has been amazing! Prompt, professional, and patient. He has gone above and beyond, taking the time to show me how to operate the water valves and educating me so I can continue to monitor for future leaks. He identified multiple leaks and made thoughtful recommendations.”
“Beto was very professional, thorough and patient in explaining everything he was doing and why. It was an excellent and well worth it experience, and this is saying something for an architect who had a hundred questions!”
“The owner and operator of this company is everything a contractor should be. On time, honest, competent, reachable, comprehensive. Hope to work with him again in the future.”