SWCG Maintenance Question

[BigTallGuy]

Well, as always one thing leads to another. I disassembled and cleaned my cell by first picking and washing away most of the soft alkaline deposits, then used 4 cups of water and 1 cup of Muriatic acid solution and let is soak for 5 minutes, hosed the cell off and re-assembled the unit. When I started the system, the Low Salt light came back on. Frustrated, I took another sample of water to a different pool store and verified that my salt is 3500 PPM.

However, the Pool Store guy tells me that my Ph is off the chart like 8.2 or higher. I asked him to check it again and he did but he did something strange. After filling the tester with fresh sample water, he puts 3 drops of chlorine neutralizer into the test then the 5 drops of the #2 Red Solution, and whaddya know he's right, it was again off the chart. I asked him why he put three drops of the Chlorine Neutralizer in, and he says because your chlorine level is way high like 3.0 - 4.0 again almost off the chart. I thanked him and left.

When I got home, I tested the Ph myself first using ONE DROP Of Chlorine Neutralizer and 5 drops of #2 Red and got 7.4 Ph, a pretty Peach color. When I retested the second time using 3 drops of Chlorine Neutralizer and 5 drops of #2 Red, I got what he got over 8.2.

Sooooo, here is the burning question, Who's right? The instuctions that came with my cheap tester kit says one drop of #1 Solution which is the Chlorine Neutralizer, and 5 drops of #2 Red. Is using more Chlorine Neutralizer a little trick to "POOL STORE" a BIG TALL DUMB GUY?

Here is the rest of the story, when I got home two things happened, first I added a cup of acid, and the SWCG switched from Polarity One (where it had been running with the Low Salt light on) to Polarity 2 (which I assume is how the self cleaner works), AND THE LOW SALT LIGHT WENT OUT!!! ???? I am not complaining, just confused. Did the Self Cleaning thing "FIX" the problem, or could one polarity direction have an issue? Or, Maybe it is/was the Ph? Since very few of us are swimming anyway, I thought I'd keep the forum going with yet another series of questions.

Thanks, BTDG