Those who own the Lodge products, what do you think of the quality? I was ready to pick one up at a local Cabela's and when i looked at a Lodge i was amazed at the lack of proper fitment of lid to oven. It was horrible and i chalked it up to modern production. (you need a tight seal on oven lid to keep heat in) Thinking this one on display was just a bad one i checked those in boxes and it wasnt much better.
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I have 5 of them, no problem with any lid seals. The lids are heavy and seem to seal just fine, even if there might be some play between the pot and the lid.
Seems i had checked out a few bad apples that arent typical of Lodge quality. I'll have to give them a second look.
I was describing the horizontal mating surface.
You may also be appling an unrealistic standard to a cast steel pot. The lids are not super tight, niether are the very expenive LeCrusset lids. Both work very well and my DO has never had any ash in it that I didn't stupidly dump in myslef! You won't loose moisture either. I've cooked a full beef burgandy stew in mine several times (up to 5 hours on the coals) and it came out amazing.