These electrical scooters are everywhere from pavements of parks to X-game arenas. Since none of the high-end companies like Samsung, Apple, Sony and others have come up with a personal scooter of their own, we are forced to buy these off eBay from lesser known companies like Skque and Monorover. Many of these companies are fledgling electronics entities and have little or no experience of dealing with mechanical problems like overheating and electrical issues involving batteries. Although they have done a decent job, serious problems are now being reported with many reporting exploded boards, probably because of an overheated battery. Since most of the batteries from these manufacturers are straight off-the-shelf stuff, this kind of incident wasn’t altogether unexpected. Many others have reported their product catching flames and becoming useless.
There was an incident in Boca Raton, Florida. Then there was this one in Gulf Shores, Alabama. There was even one reported in Louisiana that destroyed a house.
With the increase in these kinds of incidents, UK government has seized 15,000 boards that were then declared unsafe because of fire or explosion risk. They have even warned the populace that hoverboards can put you at risk, and you should be really careful while buying it.
This tweet from the Fire Brigade Department helped dramatize the whole situation even further:
Another hoverboard catches fire while on charge in #Kent. We’re campaigning about the risks https://t.co/tV7g63snoC pic.twitter.com/xj837iAERY
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) November 3, 2015
Just as predicted, many of these incidents involved the Li-ion batteries used in the boards. It is difficult to place the blame on the battery manufacturing companies in China as the same ones are probably making battery packs for iPhones and Galaxy phones. A BuzzFeed report showed how most of these are being made in the manufacturing center of the world. Maybe the Quality Assurance Department of the brands selling these boards are the ones to blame. So, the government should tighten regulation on these companies and force them to pay hefty fines if they can’t ensure the safety of their products. Recently, Halford has just recalled its Air Runner Board because of this issue and hopefully it will be resolved.
So, always try to buy the perfect hoverboard and preferably the one that hasn’t experienced these kinds of design issues! If you are interested in getting a hoverboard, you should check out all the available offerings here and choose for yourself based on the reviews.
Cost at the expense of safety.