All hard-sided Pelican coolers are designed with a small gap in the gasket. This gap is usually between 1/8″ and 1/4″ and will not affect the performance of your cooler. When Pelican redesigned their coolers in 2016, they introduced this feature to act as a pressure release due to customer feedback that the coolers were difficult to open during use. In addition to making your cooler easier to open, the gap also makes it safe for you to use dry ice in your cooler.

If the gap in your cooler’s gasket is larger than 1/4″, you can uninstall your gasket and then reinstall it to make the gap smaller. The gasket sits in a groove in the lid and can easily be pulled out and then pushed back in. Leaving the uninstalled gasket in a warm spot (like a sunny windowsill or by a heat register) will relax the rubber and make it easier to reinstall.