The Ph has gone up from 7.2 to 7.5. I've added another 16oz. of acid to see if I can get the alk in the 100-120 range. I guess the concern is that people who don't have Ben's kit might be adding more chemicals to their pools than might be necessary. I purchased the 5-way HTH while waiting for the P234 and only broke the plastic cellaphane yesterday. The kit can't be that far off ...can it??