Forget death and taxes, ’cause the two most certain aspects of life in 2016 are Choice telling hapless Aussies to basically avoid ‘hoverboards’ like the plague, and lithium battery-lovers sticking their gyroscopically-balanced heads in the sand about their safety risks. Looking at you, Rusty.
The consumer advocacy publication / tireless warriors against dangerous b.s have come out with a warning to any Aussies who may have picked up one of the things over Christmas. They report five different types sold in Victoria have already been identified as unsafe, with Energy Safe Victoria only greenlighting two models.
The recalled products aren’t even obviously unsafe, as in, “I feel off and sprained me wrist!” unsafe, not at all. We’re talking “these things could literally spontaneously combust” unsafe, as one Melbourne family found out when an exploding battery sparked a devastating house fire last night.
Worryingly, that model was apparently deemed a-ok beforehand.
FYI, Fairfax reports the list of bung units as follows:
- Moonwalker two-wheel scooter by Hunter Sports
- Sello Products self-balancing two-wheel electric scooter
- AirWalk Self-Balancing Scooter
- Go Skitz Self Balancing E Boards models S01 and S03 (just the charger, though)
- Scooter Emporium – Self Balancing Scooter with Charger
- Techwheel Z-01
Even then, Choice spokesperson Erin Turner thinks consumers shouldn’t just be reading that list post-Chrissy – they should be checking it twice. She says “this is a developing situation, products that haven’t been recalled may yet be… This is something to watch very carefully.”
It’s not exactly an issue that’s centred on Australia either, as a guy from L.A recently chucked a video online of his hoverboard blowing the hell up.
You can scope out the details of the recalled models on the government’s recall site. Maybe this will clear some things up for Russell, too.
