Despite it's crankiness at the low end of the battery charge, I've got to hand it to Apple for sturdiness.

I use the Shuffle while at the gym, and I noticed the white lanyard was getting a bit grubby. I made a mental note to take it to the kitchen to remove the USB cover and hand wash the string.

As 3 decades of partying is capable of doing, I forgot to remove it from my shorts before loading into the washer. I discovered the erstwhile stowaway before tossing it into the spinning hell of the dryer.

Having a bit too much experience with the frustrating combination of electronics and water, I removed the now sparkling clean lanyard/cap combination and shook out the dewy freshness from within. 

After only a day, I fired that sucker up, and it's played as well as it ever did--for the past 14 months!