Self - equilibrise skateboards are study the sidewalks of the U.S. by storm . But aside from the potential harm to your public image , they pose another , very real danger : burn your house to the ground .
Many of the hoverboards / Swagwayscurrently on sales agreement for meretricious have something in rough-cut : they ’re made by whack - off Formosan party that do n’t pass any of the safe trial plebeian to electronic devices . And that ’s a problem , because big lithium - ion batteries ( and the chargers for them ) can potentially be very dangerous , without the right safety engineering . It ’s the same issue e - cigarette went through a few twelvemonth ago : a fresh gadget is very popular , but there ’s no market - leading product , so a wave of ( dangerous ) Chinese knockoffs oversupply the market .
This is n’t just some bogeyman : last week , a family rest home in Lafitte bite down , a fervidness blamed on a defective hoverboard bought off Amazon . In the UK , the Fire Brigade charge three sign fire in October on faulty hoverboards .
It ’s not a job limited to a few devices , either : the UK Trading Standards authorityseized 15,000 faulty hoverboards at ports today ; it said 88 % of the board it examined overall turned out not to abide by with canonical electronics guard regularization , mostly relating to faulty fuses , ballyhoo , or chargers .
If you want to protect yourself from explode hoverboards , there are a few options : most imporantly , ensure that the equipment and battery charger conform to external standards . TheCE marking , call for on every equipment sold in the European Union , is a skilful starting point . Buying from a well - known , non - eBay steel would also be a good theme .
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