When I took over from my pool person 10 weeks ago , I had all sorts of issues that I needed to fix. I have invested about 1,000 bucks - but glad I did.
Why I had my salt tested, it was down to 2100 - even though display said 3200. So it turned out that the PCB board needed replacing. I cost 400 including install and 3 year warranty.
I then bought test kit, extra agents , cleaning equipment, 6 gallons of bleach, etc. Had to add 80lb of salt, 2 gallons of Stabilizer, 30lb of calcium.
I just recently did a successful SLAM.
This morning I am at my target of 7.5FC, I have turned pump time down and at 35% SWG.
It has all been worth it.
Do you know what is wrong with the SWG? If it is Heyward, I would recommend calling their tech support, they are very good and very helpful.
IMO, I would rather have balanced pool with SWG just keeping it nicely ticking over at the levels I want, than having to keep manually adjusting all the time.
My return on investment is not necessarily just monitory , it is peace-of-mind and also I now no longer feel violated by a company charging 120 bucks a month for literally 5 minutes work per week.