I noticed that on mine when I took a close up look at it to make sure water wasn't going to get in when it started to drizzle partway through a rotisserie cook last year. The whole thing's actually quite well sealed with the plastic cover over the power switch as well. The only opening is for the spit socket and even then, it's well inside the casing on the side that's protected by the mounting bracket on the ring. I'd have to check, but going by memory, it's only a 9 watt motor in there driving the spit through some serious reduction gearing so it shouldn't get very warm unless the rotisserie is grossly overloaded.