Pool service in Tempe, AZ, starts with the water coming out of your hose. Tempe treats most of its own drinking water from river supplies, the mix shifts through the year, and that mix decides how fast scale builds on your tile and how much attention the chemistry needs. Here is what a Tempe pool owner should know, and how the free referral line fits in.
Phoenix Pool Cleaning Pro is a phone line, not a pool company. Phone (623) 240-0428; an automated assistant collects a short account of the pool trouble, then transfers the call to an independent, locally owned pool service company that works in Tempe. That company looks at the pool, gives you its own price and does the work, and you pay it directly.
Tempe: a city that runs its own river water plants
The City of Tempe's drought plan says that in a typical year about 87 percent of its water comes from the Salt River Project (SRP) watersheds, meaning rain and snowmelt that reach the Valley through the Salt and Verde rivers. Renewable groundwater adds about 7 percent, and the Central Arizona Project (CAP), which carries Colorado River water, supplies the remaining 6 percent or so.
The two rivers are not alike. Tempe's water quality staff note that the Salt runs higher in total dissolved solids (the salts and minerals left behind when water dries) and chlorides, while the Verde runs higher in hardness compounds such as calcium. How much of each reaches your street depends on rain, mountain snowmelt and the season. So a Tempe pool can test one way in spring and another in late summer, even when nobody changed anything.
Pool service in Tempe, AZ: what owners ask for
The everyday need is steady weekly pool cleaning and maintenance: skimming, brushing, emptying baskets and keeping the chlorine, pH and stabilizer where they belong through a hot summer. Calcium lines on the waterline tile are a familiar Tempe sight, and removing them is what pool tile cleaning is for. When a pump hums without moving water or a filter pressure gauge climbs and stays high, pool pump repair and pool filter cleaning cover the usual fixes. And a pool that has gone green after a missed week or a tenant move-out belongs with green pool cleanup.
Pool Cleaning and Weekly Maintenance
Skimming, brushing, baskets, vacuuming and water testing week after week, and why heat, dust and hard water make the routine matter here.
Pool Repair
Pumps, filters, heaters, salt cells, lights and plumbing: how a repair visit starts with a diagnosis and when a part is worth fixing.
Pool Pump Repair
A pump that hums, leaks, screams or will not prime. What fails, what a repair or replacement involves, and the federal efficiency rule for new pumps.
Pool Tile Cleaning
White calcium lines at the waterline: why they form so fast in the Valley, how bead blasting and other methods compare, and what can damage tile.
Pool Filter Cleaning
Cartridge, DE and sand filters, the pressure gauge rule of thumb, and why dust storms load filters fast.
Green Pool Cleanup
Bringing a green or swampy pool back: what the cleanup involves, how long it takes, and the mosquito rules Maricopa County enforces.
Reading Tempe's water report for your pool
Tempe publishes a water quality report every year and keeps past reports online. Three things in it matter to a pool owner.
Hardness, and how to convert it
Hardness is mostly dissolved calcium and magnesium. The city reports it in milligrams per liter, which is the same as parts per million. Divide by 17.1 to get grains per gallon. In the 2016 report the average was 226 parts per million, or about 13.2 grains, with readings from 5.8 to 26.3 grains.
No legal limit on hardness
The city points out that there is no primary or secondary drinking water standard for hardness. Your water can be perfectly safe to drink and still leave a white crust on tile and inside a heater or salt cell once the pool has been topped off all summer.
The blend changes
Because the Salt and Verde supplies differ, the numbers shift with the seasons and from year to year. A single test from spring does not tell you what fall water will do. That is a good reason to test calcium hardness and total dissolved solids more than once a year.
What that water means for a Tempe pool
Summer in the Valley evaporates a lot of pool water, and every inch you top off brings in more minerals. The water leaves; the calcium stays. Over months the calcium hardness and total dissolved solids in the pool climb past what came out of the tap. A careful pool technician tracks this with something called the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI), a way of combining pH, alkalinity, calcium and temperature to show whether the water is likely to leave scale or eat at plaster. In very hot water the balance tips toward scale, which is why a Tempe pool can grow a crust in August that it did not have in April.
The fixes run from simple to big. Steady weekly care keeps the chemistry from drifting. Tile cleaning removes the crust that already formed. When the minerals get too high to balance, partly or fully replacing the water is the reset, and the guide to how often to drain a pool in Arizona explains how owners and pool companies decide. Cyanuric acid, the stabilizer that shields chlorine from the sun, also builds up over time, and it only leaves when water leaves.
Safe checks before you call
- Baskets. Empty the skimmer and pump baskets. A packed basket starves the pump of water.
- Filter gauge. Note the pressure reading and tell the company. A reading well above normal usually means a dirty filter.
- Timer. Check that the pump schedule did not reset after a power blip.
- Water level. The water should sit about halfway up the skimmer opening.
- Breaker. Reset a tripped pool breaker or GFCI just once. A repeat trip is a job for a professional, so leave it off.
- Chemicals. Never mix pool chemicals with each other. Store them apart, dry, shaded and out of children's reach, and leave acid work to a professional.
Tempe's rules on draining, fences and green pools
Tempe's water waste ordinance does not count the periodic draining of a pool or spa as reportable water waste, so draining every few years is not itself a problem. Where the water goes is the issue. The city tells residents not to drain pool water into an alley, because the standing water leaves the ground unstable and uneven for drivers, cyclists and people walking. It also explains that storm drains carry runoff untreated straight to parks, retention basins, washes, canals and community lakes, which is why chlorinated pool water does not belong in the street. Tempe publishes a pool discharge sheet on its stormwater tips page; read it, or have the pool company follow it, before any water leaves the yard. To report someone else's discharge into a storm drain, the city lists (480) 350-4311.
Fences are written into city code. Tempe City Code Sec. 21-3(b) requires a pool area to be enclosed by a fence at least five feet tall, with self-closing, self-latching gates or padlocked gates, and openings small enough that a four-inch ball cannot pass through or under. The same section treats a pool with a deteriorated appearance that may create a health hazard, or one that harbors insects such as mosquitoes, as a violation. For a rental or an owner-occupied home, that makes a neglected pool both a safety problem and a code problem.
Children and water. Tempe Fire Medical Rescue publishes water safety advice for families on its website. Never leave a child alone near the pool, keep gates latched, and treat a green or cloudy pool as a hazard because the bottom cannot be seen.
Building rules matter when work goes beyond cleaning. Tempe's building codes page says that starting January 1, 2027, all permit applications must comply with the 2024 International Code Council codes, a set that includes the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. If a job such as pool equipment repair or replacement or pool resurfacing might need a permit, ask the company whether it pulls one.
Saving water around a Tempe pool
Tempe does not list a rebate for pool covers, but its Certified Water Efficient Home program names a pool cover as a water-saving practice, since a cover slows evaporation and keeps chemical use down, and homes with pools can still be certified. The city's rebates are aimed at the yard around the pool. Its Grass Removal and Conversion Rebate pays $0.50 per square foot of grass converted to low-water desert landscape, up to $2,000 per home per fiscal year, with pre-approval required first. A High-Efficiency Irrigation Rebate covers up to $500 toward qualifying parts such as smart controllers. Amounts can change each fiscal year, so check the city's rebate pages before you plan around them.
Less water lost to evaporation also means fewer top-offs, which means fewer new minerals entering the pool. In a city whose hardness swings with the river blend, that is a small but real help to your tile.
Why Tempe homeowners call the line
Water that changes with the rivers
When the tile crust or cloudy water shows up after the blend shifts, one free call puts you through to a Tempe area pool company that can test and explain what it finds.
A green pool is a code issue too
Tempe can cite a pool that harbors mosquitoes or looks deteriorated. The line answers any hour, so you can reach a company the day you notice the color change.
The company bills you, not the line
Calling costs nothing. The pool service company you are put through to inspects, quotes and does the work, and you pay it directly.
A way to check the license
For repairs, equipment and resurfacing, this site shows you how to look up a company on the Arizona Registrar of Contractors search before signing a quote.
How a Tempe call works
- Call the numberAn automated assistant answers (623) 240-0428 day or night, weekends included.
- Describe the poolSay what is going on: cloudy or green water, a pump that hums, a heater that will not fire, scale on the tile, and which part of the Valley you are in.
- Get put throughThe call is transferred to an independent, locally owned pool service company, which hears a short summary of the problem before it picks up.
- Deal with them directlyThat company looks at the pool, quotes, does the work and bills you. If it cannot answer, your name, number, area and problem are passed along so it can call you back.
About this line: Phoenix Pool Cleaning Pro is a free phone line, not a pool company. It answers your call and connects you with an independent local pool service company, which inspects, quotes and does the work, and which you pay directly. Companies may pay a referral fee. You never pay the line. See how the line works.
Check the license first. Arizona's Registrar of Contractors (ROC) licenses contractors, and its residential classifications include R-6, Swimming Pool Service and Repair. Repairs, equipment replacement and resurfacing generally call for a licensed contractor; whether a cleaning-only service needs a license is not spelled out, so ask the ROC if it matters to you. Ask the company for its ROC license number and look it up on the ROC contractor search (opens in a new tab) before work begins. The line does not check this for you.
Electric service in the Valley comes from SRP or APS depending on the address, and neither one repairs pool equipment. Lights on but a silent pump points to the pump, its motor or its wiring, which is pool company territory. If you ever smell gas near a pool heater, leave the area, do not touch switches or the heater, and once you are well away, phone 911 or the gas utility listed on your bill.
Near Tempe, and worth reading
Every Phoenix-area town the line serves: