The lid is difficult to open completely. I had to apply all the pressure that I could by manually  pushing on the hinges one at a time. I didn't have the strength to push on them both at the same time but used two hands to work on each one individually.  (Even if I were a man and strong enough to push/pull on the hinges at the same time,  you wouldn't want to have to close it this way and pushing on the cover instead of the hinges seems as if it would damage or bend it.) Once I got the hinges to fully open so the lid could fully open, then I had the reverse problem. So after a lot of effort to pop the hinges back in the closed position, I've decided that it opening half way is good enough. It does stay propped open because the hinges are so stiff.