Scottsdale Water
How do I spot a leak on a Scottsdale Water bill?
Scottsdale Water customers have two places to look for a leak: the billed usage history printed on every monthly statement, and the WaterSmart portal, which shows usage in far more detail than a bill can and carries its own leak alerts. The portal is the reason Scottsdale is one of the easier Valley bills to investigate.
Reading the bill
A monthly statement with its own history
Every Scottsdale Water monthly statement shows a history of billed water usage alongside the current period.
Scottsdale measures residential water in thousands of gallons, so the figure on the statement is not directly comparable with a bill from a provider using a different unit. Check the unit printed on your own statement before comparing anything.
The history on the statement is the part that answers a leak question. What you are looking for is not the tallest bar but the lowest one: the floor of the chart, the amount the household uses when nothing is being watered. A leak raises that floor and leaves it raised.
The cycle
Monthly, with hourly data for many customers
Scottsdale reads monthly, but not every meter is read the same way. Scottsdale Water says roughly two thirds of its customers now have advanced meters returning hourly reads, while the remainder are read manually once a month.
That difference matters when you are trying to date a leak. An hourly record can show the night it began; a monthly manual read can only place it inside a billing period.
The portal and the meter
WaterSmart, and the box in the ground
Scottsdale Water publishes a free monitoring portal called WaterSmart, open to its customers, with usage graphics, downloadable data, an online leak assistance tool and leak notifications. Scottsdale is explicit that the data and alerts are provided as a courtesy, so it is worth treating an alert as a prompt to go and check rather than as a finding.
The meter itself is the check that owes nobody anything. Switch off every fixture, the irrigation controller and the pool equipment, open the meter box carefully, and watch the low-flow indicator. Any movement means water is leaving on your side of the meter.
In the usage history
Reading a Scottsdale usage chart
| What the history shows | What it suggests | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| The floor of the chart has risen | A continuous loss added to normal use | The meter with everything off, then the pool and irrigation separately |
| Hourly data shows use every hour of the night | Something running continuously | Toilets first, then the auto-fill and the irrigation valves |
| A spike on one day only | A one-off event rather than a leak | What happened that day |
What they publish
The winter average, and the request Scottsdale publishes
Scottsdale recalculates the residential sewer charge each July from the customer's average consumption during the low-watering winter months of the previous December, January and February, taking ninety percent of that average. A leak running through those three months therefore sets the sewer charge for the year that follows.
Scottsdale publishes a sewer charge adjustment request through its utility billing office under the City Code, with a form to be submitted ahead of the July recalculation and a cut-off at the end of August for the current year. It concerns the sewer charge rather than the water charge.
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
Scottsdale billing questions
What is the WaterSmart portal?
It is Scottsdale Water's free water monitoring portal for its customers, with usage graphics, downloadable data, a leak assistance tool and leak notifications. Scottsdale describes the data and alerts as a courtesy, so an alert is a reason to go and look check rather than a diagnosis.
Why did my Scottsdale sewer charge change in July?
Because Scottsdale recalculates the residential sewer charge each July, using ninety percent of the average consumption during the previous December, January and February. Whatever happened in those winter months is carried forward for the following year.
Does Scottsdale Water publish a leak adjustment?
Scottsdale publishes a sewer charge adjustment request under the City Code, with a submission deadline ahead of the July recalculation and a later cut-off for the current year. It addresses the sewer charge. Ask Scottsdale Water what applies to your account.
My WaterSmart alert says continuous use. Does that mean a leak?
It means water moved in every reporting period, which a leak does and ordinary household use does not. The next step is the meter test with everything off, and then eliminating toilets, the pool auto-fill and the irrigation in turn.
If the floor of the chart has risen
Where we work in Scottsdale
Tell us what the water is doing
A screenshot of the WaterSmart usage graph, and whether the meter moved with everything switched off.
Send us the WaterSmart graph
Continuous overnight use in the portal usually tells us where to start.
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.”