Well, opened my window today and noticed my water levels down by approx 8". Went out and was expecting to see a leak and sure enough, one of the 1.25" flex hoses attached to an inlet cracked. It gets sunlight from 7am-3pm directly. Not a surprising shock but I'm happy that it happened now and not while I was away. Pump was whining from all the air. and so much debris in the pool, skimmer stopped working. So I taped it up with tuck tape and it's all good to go. Just finished the first wave of vacuuming and it will certainly require another. Adding water now but more than enough that I'll have to retest everything and start dumping some goodies into the pool.
Just checking the prices of a replacement and wow, the cheapest I could find is Amazon for $40 for 2. Good reason to save the money and start looking at hard plumbing come next year.