Wheel house doors

[Red_Eye]

Looking for advice on best methods to keep doors from freezing on a wheel house. I have a forced air heater with one of the ducts pointed towards the side door but it still seems to be a freezing problem with the door handle operating properly. It is not really a problem with the seal around the door its just the handle mechanism. My doors are the typical Ice Castle type with round knob. I don't think I have been in a wheel house that this wasn't an issue, just looking for suggestions or tricks to minimize issues. Quite a frustration when nature calls and have to struggle with opening the door in the middle of the night.

Thanks.

[Freewheeler]

Redeye, Lucky we haven't had any -20* nights or you might really be locked in. I would imagine the temp difference between inside air temp and metal temp of the lock is what might be contributing to the frost/freeze situation. Had kinda the same situation wjth my dual doors in the back of my house a couple years back, [when we had a real winter] but was due to escaping air around the door frames at sub zero temps. The man who builds them for a living let me look at his and he had a weatherstrip of that fuzzy stuff glued on top header as well as aluim where doors came together. That took care of any air leaking out and frosting up. The knob he said he takes off, brings in and cleans up, and sprays with silicone. [working parts] not WD40. I did mine with a graphite spray and have never had any issues since. Yours might be different of course but this trick worked for me.

With the circulating fans we have in our houses nowadays its no wonder some warm air escapes. At least youv'e got some time to figure it out. Good luck.

[Red_Eye]

Thanks for the advice Freewheeler. I used the powder graphite you suggested and it makes a huge difference.