I've dropped my Pro Pointer hard on the cement at least three times and it's still working just like new. I really thought I would have broke it by doing that (I had a dumb place I kept it in my garage that often had me clumsy getting it and my holster off a high shelf).
One time the speaker did get a little less loud but found out it was dirt in the speaker slits. A little picking at it with a toothpick real careful like and a quick rinse under water (have to be fast, because the speaker hole ain't waterproof) and it was fine again. I think the volume also gets low when the battery is near dead if I remember right, but the battery lasts for almost a year for me.
This ain't addressed to you but rather to others who might be doing this below. Just a word of warning to people...
I'm thinking some of the people having instability issues with it might be pushing it hard into the dirt to try to get the signal and that's causing the coil windings to warp out of shape inside the shaft. Coil winding alignment is critical for stable performance on a coil. People might be pushing so hard often with it digging around in holes that over time the windings get out of place, as I don't think the windings are encased in epoxy like they are on most coils to prevent such a thing.
Also, without the windings inside of epoxy, tempertures can cause them to warp out of alignment on say a really hot day. I noticed a few weeks back that it was very hot in my garage and the Pro Pointer felt hot in my hand when I got it out of there. I turned it on in my backyard and it took only a short amount of time for it to start falsing, like it will do if left on for long periods of time as people know. I read that when it's left on a long time the capacitors warm up and cause the drift/instability, so I suspect it being hot in my garage had already pushed it close to that point so when it was turned out it didn't take long to start falsing. Like maybe 30 seconds or so.
So on colder days you should get longer run time before it becomes unstable, but I keep mine turned off every time I put it down while mucking around in the hole so no worries there for me. I don't like leaving it on while it's on the ground just to save battery life, so rarely do I do that unless I know I'll need it in only a few more seconds again.
Point being that I'd tell people to be safe and not be putting force on the tip pushing it hard into a hole. That's not going to give it more depth and might cause performance issues down the road. Besides, if you push hard on the tip it'll falsely sound off anyway, so that's why it shouldn't be done anyway because how do you know if you got a false hit or the real thing? Far better to super tune when you can't hear the target.
