501,000 Hoverboards Recalled Over Safety Concerns

July 12th, 2016 by Thomas J. Henry

Nearly half a million hoverboards have been recalled in the United States after concerns over the self balancing vehicles catching fire and posing a danger to the rider.

Details about the Hoverboard  Recall

Engadget is reporting that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling 501,000 hoverboards over concerns that their batteries will overheat and catch fire. The recall covers models from AirWalk, Razor, and Swagway.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have to go without a board. If you have one of the relevant Swagway models, you can ask the company for either a repair  or a credit for a UL-certified model, like the Swagtron T1 or T3.

Swagway and others are producing safer devices that probably won’t be taken off shelves any time soon, so you can likely get a brand new board with confidence.

Hoverboard Models Affected by Recall 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that there have been at least 99 incident reports of the battery packs in self-balancing scooters/hoverboards overheating, sparking, smoking, catching fire and/or exploding.

• The full list of recalled devices is at the CPSC website.  They were all sold within the last year or so, costing between $350 and $900.