UL fights hoverboard fires with new safety standards

We're here deep in the bowels of Underwriters Laboratories in Northbrook, Illinois, taking a look at their new testing procedures for hoverboards. [MUSIC] [SOUND] Hoverboards are a cool toy but they also pose a series of safety risks from the battery [UNKNOWN] circuitry and more. So, underwriters laboratory has actually developed a new test standard to test the device from the ground up to make sure the model you buy is actually safe. Hoverboards are something that have been on the market for a while, but the fact is we know that there's been some fires and some issues with hover boards. So UL has come up with a set of requirements that would be applicable to hover Cords. We will test the batteries, the battery pack, and the charger. This is where most of the issues could arise from because the battery pack carries a lot of energy in a small package. The battery pack is something, that when one of the cells faults, it could involve the others. That's a domino effect, That could cause the fires that we might have seen. UL plans to conduct blunt mail tests, projectile tests, drop tests, and even locked rotor tests where they stick the wheel in a vise for seven hours and watch it struggle. So when you see the UL seal of approval on your hoverboard's box Then you know that it meets UL safety standards. For any product that carries the UL mark we test it from the ground up. Including the basic materials that go into the products, the insulating materials, the inclosure materials, to the various components the overall Product itself. And that's true with hoverboards. We will look at the motor, the wire, the circuit boards, the switches, all of that will be tested by UL. So even though hoverboards aren't quite out of the woods yet, this new certification that you should be able to find straight on the box, should clue you in and let you know that the model is actually safe. [MUSIC]