Do You Even Need One? Tempe's Straight Answer
The City of Tempe says its water meets every federal, state and local standard, so home treatment isn't needed for safety. People add it for two reasons the rules don't cover: hardness deposits and chlorine taste.
Tempe also warns that home treatment devices can cause more water quality problems if they aren't maintained, and that softeners are limited in what they can do. We agree: a softener fixes scale, nothing else, and only if it's set and serviced.
If scale is your problem, it's real. Tempe's 2025 water quality report puts hardness at 12.3 grains per gallon on average, with readings up to 32.6.
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Why Tempe Hardness Swings
Tempe treats water from the Salt River Project and the Central Arizona Project at two plants, Johnny G. Martinez and South Tempe, and adds well water. The blend changes with the seasons and the snowmelt.
Per the city, the Verde River is higher in hardness, while the Salt River is higher in dissolved solids and chlorides. So a softener set once for the average can fall behind when the blend shifts. Tempe's own formula for the setting: take the hardness in mg/L from the water report and divide by 17.1 to get grains per gallon.
We set the softener to the harder end of your readings and show you how to adjust it.
Three Tempe Water Complaints a Softener Won't Fix
- Chlorine taste: Tempe keeps about 1 mg/L of chlorine in the system. Carbon filtration or a kitchen reverse osmosis system removes the taste.
- Musty or earthy taste in summer: algae compounds from the canals (MIB and geosmin), detectable in parts per trillion by sensitive noses. Tempe uses activated carbon at the plant; carbon at home helps sensitive households too.
- Rotten-egg smell from the hot tap only: usually bacteria in a water heater that's set too low or sits unused. Tempe suggests asking a licensed plumber about the right temperature setting. See water heater repair.
Tempe banned lead solder and lead pipe in new construction in May 1988. In older homes, the city advises flushing the cold tap before drinking after water has sat for hours.
Tempe Softener & RO Deals
Buy a softener and the RO system is free, or take $100 off RO on its own. Current terms on the coupons page.
Existing softener acting up? Our $99 service call covers the diagnosis and an upfront price, and it goes toward the repair if you go ahead. More on plumbing in Tempe.