Battery powering your phone (or any of your gadgets) is most probably a Li-Ion battery. Li-Ion, using its incredible energy density, is the de facto standard for almost any application requiring batteries. The catch: Li-Ion is inherently unstable.
So, why did hoverboards catch fire specifically? We have a whole article about this, but, in short, it’s due to poor manufacturing, low quality components and especially the really nature of electric hoverboard.
You can see, hoverboards are transportation devices and, as such, they’re likely to be exposed to a lot more vibrations and impacts than, say, your phone. This will likely inevitably exacerbate possible manufacturing defects in the battery and increase the potential risk of a fire by a minimum of your order of magnitude.
News outlets ran using the stories of hoverboard fires, and the majority of major retailers stopped selling the gadget.
Hoverboard companies rushed to produce a safer hoverboard that might pass inspection, and so they created prototypes in record time.
Underwriters’ Laboratories is surely an organization dedicated to the testing of electric equipment. They ran tests on hoverboards, to gauge the standard of the ingredients, the manufacturing as well as the resilience of hoverboards even when used improperly. This can include subjecting the hoverboards to vibrations, drops, motor overloads, water exposure, everywhere temperatures, and varied kinds of physical stress.
The UL standard 2272 may be the one regulating hoverboards. Every hoverboard that features a legitimate UL 2272 certification is completely safe. Therefore we just ever recommend hoverboards that are UL2272 certified.
We begin with Swagtron, a company born about the ashes from the now defunct Swagway, LLC. Swagway got itself into trouble with all the non-UL certified boards it shipped prior to getting its certification, in addition to a trademark infringement lawsuit by Segway. It is simple to realize why.
Swagtron is producing two of the more innovative hoverboards around, the Swagtron T1 as well as the Swagtron T3.
Both the T1 along with the T3 have a Sentry Shield™ system that basically encases battery in aluminum, in order that if this were to fail, it wouldn’t catch fire. They also feature silicone wheel arch scratch protectors.
Swagtron hoverboards come with a “learning mode” which softens the response from your hoverboards, letting you step off and on easier. For instructions regarding how to ride a hoverboard, take a look at our article.
The Swagtron T1 is bridging the space between premium quality components and reasonable prices. It may possibly not be as feature rich as several of its competitors, however the reliability and the construction with this hoverboard are great to the price.
One more reason to select the Swagtron T3 can be speed: the Swagtron T3 incorporates a “performance mode” making the board super responsive and quite fast. We love to it, although the difference in speed isn’t really that great. We believe it’s under 2mph.
Still, we figure younger people would enjoy having their music blasting while riding their hoverboards. As well as the extra power is without a doubt welcome for heavier riders (or people who would like to utilize this powered scooter on streets which can be with an incline).
Hoverzon can be a Las Vegas based company that appears to have an agreement with similar manufacturer that Swagtron is employing: Swagtron and Hoverzon are pretty much putting out the same products.
The Hoverzon equivalents in the Swagtron T1 and T3 are, respectively, the Hoverzon S and the Hoverzon XLS.
It is because both Hoverzon and Swagtron are obtaining their hoverboards through the same manufacturer in China.
As a result, we are going to merge the Swagtron and Hoverzon hoverboards in the following paragraphs. Anything we write about the Swagtrons is relevant towards the Hoverzons.
The established company that makes kids’ scooters and toys entered the hoverboard game right before the whole fire media frenzy started. Bad timing.
Especially because Razor allegedly purchased the patent to the hoverboards from the creator in the Hovertrax, a kickstarter project which is credited as being the first hoverboard concept.
The Razor Hovertrax 2. is basically a regular 6.5 inch wheel hoverboard redesigned more for “branding” purposes rather than introduce any new functionality.
The one thing we like regarding the design will be the inclusion of rubber guards in the wheel arches, in order that you don’t need to purchase them separately (such as you would for that Powerboard), and your board won’t get scratched as easily. Because the rubber is a fundamental part of the board, it appears as though this may be a bit more secure in comparison to the silicone guards that come bundled with both the Swagtron T1 and T3. And you also won’t even use these guards the maximum amount of – due to the “EverBalance” technology, this board won’t tumble away from you should you fall or dismount while riding it. This seems minor, but it’s a really neat feature, dexjpky45 helps make the Hovertrax 2. the most effective hoverboard for novice riders.
The laziest of these all, Powerboard by Hoverboard simply modified their hoverboards to successfully pass the UL inspection and be deemed safe, but no cosmetic or functional changes were introduced through the previous generations of electric assist bike. This really is offset (slightly) through the Powerboard being pretty cheap. We have a more in-depth review of the Powerboard here.
We believe that for many riders seeking a vanilla hoverboard to start with, they ought to look elsewhere. The Swagtron T5 is, in your opinion, cheaper and better anyway.