This Footage of a Hoverboard Bursting Into Flames Is an Absolute Nightmare
Your hoverboarding friends need to see this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=825cEptCWc4
Hoverboards are not cool, and not just because they
and make your look like a douche when you’re riding one in public. While those problems are matters of opinion, hoverboards are objectively not cool because they
burst into flames more often than any popular toy should
.
Independent safety science company
UL, which certifies electronics for safety, set out to determine just how combustible these horrible toys are. The firm’s
Firefighter Safety Research Institute
set a hoverboard on fire by externally heating the lithium-ion battery in order to simulate the effects of a battery overheating on its own.
At 6:56 in the test footage above, you can hear the hoverboard’s battery pop and see smoke start to pour out of one of the wheel wells. After another 15 seconds, the hoverboard is almost completely engulfed in flames and spraying burning components all over the testing facility, setting other objects on fire in the process.
“FSRI wants to increase the knowledge of the fire service by showing what is happening prior to their arrival to these incidents,” the company said in
.
“Fire investigators should also note the potential for multiple points of ignition as flaming components are projected away from the hoverboard.”
This is great for officials, but horrifying for anyone who’s ever ridden one of these deathtraps. This video is just more proof that hoverboards are terrible and need to be done away with immediately.