I am not sure how long this has been a problem. I recently put my pool sweeper into the shop and bought a vaccuum hose. The skimmers are working but at low pressure. There is not enough suction to get a vaccum at the end of the 25 foot hose. I can not turn off the drain. The plumbing turns off either the spa drains or the pool drain and skimmer or lets you run both. I do not think this is related because I think now the sunction has been low since we move into the house. I can feel suction and verify the skimmers work somewhat from dumping chems into the skimmer.

Although, i think it is probably unrelated I will mention it. I failed fun with math and reading directions when I cleaned the filter for the first time last week. I dumped the DE into the pool, hence i need the vaccum to get it out. I also put too much in. Some near the drain, some in the skimmer So, I recleaned the filter dumping the DE slowly into the skimmer this time. The skimmer did pull the DE in the system somewhat slowly. There have also been some big storms lately in which I pulled a basket full of pine straw out of the pump baskets and the skimmer baskets were full of straw.

Most of the time the water in the pump filter basket area is not up to the top either. There also seems to be an air bubble at top. Vaccum hose works on and off I can hear a sucking sound when I pull it out at times at best there is just a little suction on my hand.

Any ideas of what to check? I want to see if it is an easy fix before calling my home warranty company for an service call.