More Than 500,000 Hoverboards Recalled Because of Fire Hazards (go.com)

501,000 self-balancing scooters -- more popularly known as hoverboards -- are being recalled due to fire hazard concerns, said The U.S. Consumer Product Safety. The lithium-ion battery packs in the hoverboards can overheat -- which could result in sparking, smoking, fire, and explosion -- the agency added. ABC reports:The recall involves hoverboards from eight manufacturers/importers that are made with lithium-ion battery packs as well as 4,300 from Overstock.com and 1,300 from a store in Pennsylvania. Amazon.com is not listed in the recall, but in February, the online giant worked with the CPSC to offer refunds to any customer who wanted to return hoverboards purchased on the site. Hoverboards by Swagway make up more than half of those recalled -- 267,000. "We are urging consumers to act quickly," CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye told ABC News. "We've concluded pretty definitively that these are not safe products the way they were designed."

Comments

Re:Ok but why?

[EvilSS]

Is the usual li-ion battery circuitry preventing overcharging missing/broken? Does the battery get crushed from the weight of the human? What's going wrong here?

"It can be dangerous!" doesn't tell me anything I don't already know about compact stores of energy.

Cheap, uncertified charging circuit designs and components rushed into production by about a zillion chinese companies trying to cash in on the craze. Combine that with the size of the battery packs (much larger than what you would find in most consumer electronics) and you get a nice, big fire hazard.