I always thought this as well... that the squeegee would interfere with the bubble rise, especially a gacked up one. My crappy AquaMaxx skimmer actually skims better with a dirty cup neck. I have it connected to a waste collector (get one, best simple investment) so I rarely clean the cup.
I have a new Deltec skimmer waiting for my 180 to be finished, and the motorized neck cleaner for it is $750!!! The frigin cleaner is twice the cost of the skimmer, lol. I also have 2 different lids for it; one that has a manual neck cleaner attached and one that is a regular lid. So you just spin the handle on the lid and the squeegee wipes it.
I'm definitely going to test if the squeegee works better or not. My prediction is I'll end up using the regular lid.
I have a new Deltec skimmer waiting for my 180 to be finished, and the motorized neck cleaner for it is $750!!! The frigin cleaner is twice the cost of the skimmer, lol. I also have 2 different lids for it; one that has a manual neck cleaner attached and one that is a regular lid. So you just spin the handle on the lid and the squeegee wipes it.
I'm definitely going to test if the squeegee works better or not. My prediction is I'll end up using the regular lid.