Wear from the elements?

Had mine since 2001.  It's never been covered and sits in the Florida elements.  No signs of wear other than cooking related.  My nest is starting to show signs, some rust spots, but the not the egg, band or anything else.

I was brought up to buy the best tools or whatever I could afford and then take care of them. I cover my eggs and my oldest are my L and S which are both 16 now. No offense to those who don't cover as I was just trying to cast my vote in your survey! BTW had you asked this Friday night the verdict would be with the no cover group! 

I park my car in the garage when a garage is available as well. Cover is relatively inexpensive. 

I keep mine (MM and XL ) in the garage. But I an nuts. No rust. The LX is 7-8 months old and the MM is 4 months old. I am still new to all this...

My XL is covered, my L lives in the wild. They're made to live outside.  No problems but I'm just a newbie.  Only a few years in.

I cover when it's real cold just so the lid doesn't freeze shut.

My Large is 9 years old, and it has rust on the small hardware pieces. I kept it covered for the first few years, but learned that condensation occurs under the cover, which then traps the moisture. So the cover did not prevent rust, moisture, or the lid from freezing shut in my Ontario climate. After the BGE cover began to disintegrate, I stopped using it altogether.

I put mineral oil on the Egg mates to keep the wood looking good, and apart from the rusting hardware, my Egg still looks great. 

My large is 2.5 years old and spent the first 2 years in my garage when not in use.  Now I keep it and the small on my back patio (covered by a roof) no matter the elements.  Would say they don't look weathered.

I suppose I'm on the side of "wish I had covered it". I did for a while, but I was using it so often it became annoying to wait for the egg to cool down to cover it, only to remove the cover 8 hours later for breakfast.

My green glaze is checker boarded, my handle looks like the pine tar end of a baseball bat, the band threads are as orange as the permatex that leaked out of the gasket I just replaced. The table is painted aluminum, so it's just ashy and dirty, but not rusty.

Inside, the ceramics are as black as the iron grill above the felt, and a mixture of blackish cream where the fire keeps things a bit nicer looking.

So, I have a cover, neatly folded in the shed and barely used even through two winters now.
Sure wish I had the patience to keep it covered. I have no time for patience.

I'm in the cover camp, one of the cheapest accessories out there.

My medium egg is ten years old, looks brand new because I keep it covered, even in our snowy winters

I apply teak oil to the wooden handle once or twice each year since the early morning sun shines on it (under covered porch) in the summer, trying to dry it out.  Other than that I just occasionally wipe the dust off the outside with a wet cloth and then if my daisy wheel gets any rust on it I re-season it, which I need to do again

I live in the desert so it doesn't get much rain so no rust. The daisy wheel is a little rusty from being stored inside the egg which I assume gets a little humid. No biggie.

I keep it under the patio, because the AZ sun can destroy anything given time. I guess the only wear I can see is it's always covered with a fine layer of dust and sand, but again, here in the desert what isn't?