What to Do if It Gets Dropped: A Ten-Minute Triage
Don't turn it on yet. The ten minutes right after a drop decide whether it has another year left.
Dropping a device is rarely fatal, but the order of your checks matters. Here's a ten-minute triage, then why each step sits where it does.
The Short Answer
Leave it off, pick it up, and inspect it dry for about 2 minutes before anything else. Look for hairline cracks near the seam and around the port, feel for loose pieces that rattle, and check that the port cover still closes flush. Then set it aside somewhere dry for 30 minutes, and only then try charging it for a few minutes. Powering on immediately is the mistake, because a cracked seal that's fine in air can pull moisture in the moment it meets water, and a damaged cell shouldn't be asked for current before you've looked at it. Most drops onto a hard floor from around 3 feet end with nothing worse than a scuff.
The Ten-Minute Triage, in Order
Run these in sequence. The order isn't arbitrary, and skipping ahead is what turns a small problem into a big one.
- Minute 1: leave it powered off. If it's running, switch it off. Nothing else happens until it is.
- Minutes 2 to 4: dry visual check. Seam, port, buttons, and any removable cover. Use good light.
- Minute 5: the shake test. Hold it near your ear and tilt gently. A rattle means something came loose inside.
- Minutes 6 to 8: rest it. Somewhere dry, at room temperature, cover open if water was involved. Twenty minutes is better than two.
- Minutes 9 and 10: a short charge test. A few minutes on the cable, watching for heat or an odd smell.
If all of that passes, use it normally. If any step fails, stop and read on.
Why Powering On Comes Last
The instinct after a drop is to check that it still works. That's exactly backwards, and it's the step that does the damage.
A hairline crack can be invisible to the eye while still breaking the seal. A device that's fine in open air may draw water in the first time it's rinsed, and once moisture reaches the board, no amount of drying reliably reverses it. The same logic applies to charging: a cell with internal damage can warm up fast, and warm is the last thing you want in a sealed body.
Ten minutes of patience is cheaper than a replacement. Once, after work, when you're tired and just want to know, that wait is the whole test.
Hairline Cracks: How to Spot Them
Look along the seam rather than at the flat surfaces. That's where molded bodies meet and where stress concentrates.
- Flex the body very slightly under a lamp. A crack opens a hair when you do, and closes when you stop.
- Run a fingernail along the seam slowly. A catch that shouldn't be there is often the edge of a split.
- Look for a white stress line in colored silicone. It appears where the material stretched past its limit.
- Check around the port cover, since that area carries the thinnest section of the shell.
If you find one, the device is no longer water-resistant, whatever the rating said when you bought it.
Internal Damage You Can't See
Exterior condition tells you less than you'd think. A body can look untouched while something inside has shifted.
Symptoms that appear a day or two later are the giveaway: a new buzz at certain settings, a button that needs more pressure, or a motor that feels weaker than it did before the drop. If any of those show up within about 2 weeks, connect them to the fall rather than assuming ordinary wear.
Battery behavior is the other one. A cell that charges in 30 minutes and drains in 20 has likely been shaken loose internally, and it won't recover with a few more cycles.
Give it a full 24 hours before you decide it's fine. Some problems only show up on the second charge, and one night of waiting costs you nothing.
If you've ever dropped one onto tile, heard nothing unusual, and found the problem a month later, that's the pattern. Silence right after the fall isn't a verdict.
When the Drop Ends It
Some damage is decisive, and pretending otherwise wastes your evening. If the shell has split, if you can hear loose pieces, or if the device warms up during a short charge, retire it. The trade-off is simple: continued use of a cracked body risks water reaching the electronics, and there's no repair path for a sealed shell. Repairs aren't really available for these devices anyway, which is worth knowing before you spend time on adhesives. Skip the whole triage if the fall was onto carpet from under a foot; in that case, a quick look is plenty. If you're still shopping, pay attention to how the body is built before it ever hits the floor.
A Body That Takes the Occasional Fall
Construction matters more than any drop you can plan around. Here's where to look.
- GODLIKE: an ergonomic handle that gives you a real grip, a reinforced seam along the body, and a sealed shell that shrugs off the kind of 3-foot drop that ends thinner designs.
- Browse the Customer Favorites collection to see what readers keep buying.
- Related reading: when a toy should be retired
- Also worth a look: keeping the first toy you bought
- Next up: keeping charging contacts clean
Sources
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — consumer guidance on inspecting electrical products after impact and before continued use.
- International Electrotechnical Commission — guidance on lithium-ion cell behavior following mechanical damage.
- ASTM International — standard practices for assessing impact damage in consumer plastic and silicone housings.
This article is general education about product care and is not medical advice. If a device becomes hot, smells unusual, or shows visible damage after a fall, stop using it and contact the manufacturer.
