Where to Find the Best Hoverboard for Kids: A Parent’s Tested Guide to Safe, Affordable Options
Last March, I stood in the middle of a Target parking lot after my son’s 9th birthday party, watching him beg for a hoverboard while he crumpled a cherry lollipop wrapper in his sticky hand. He’d just spent an hour zooming around the neighborhood park on his best friend’s new board, outrunning the group of smaller kids on bikes, and every other sentence was “all the kids on my block have one, I won’t break anything, I’ll wear my helmet I promise.”
I wasn’t actually opposed. His occupational therapist had mentioned a few months earlier that he could use more unstructured practice with core strength and balance, and anything that got him off the couch away from Roblox after school was a win in my book. But I had no clue where to start looking. I’d heard horror stories of cheap off-brand boards overheating, the nice name brand ones I’d glanced at at the sporting goods store were way out of my birthday gift budget, and I didn’t want to waste a couple hundred dollars on something he’d lose interest in after a month.
Over the next two weeks, I checked out every common spot parents look for kids’ hoverboards, talked to three other parents who’d bought them in the last year, and tested more boards than I expected to as an adult who just wanted to cross one more thing off my to-do list. Here’s what I found, that still holds up a year and a half later.
I started at the big box stores first, since I could just drive there and see boards in person after a grocery run. Target and Walmart both keep a big selection of kids’ hoverboards near the front of the store around spring and summer, and both have easy 30-day return policies if something breaks right out of the box. The big upside here is you can lift the board to check the weight before you buy. My son is small for his age, and the first board I picked up at Walmart was 25 pounds—he couldn’t even lift it off the display rack, let alone carry it up the steps to our front porch when he got tired halfway through a ride. The downside? Most of the budget options at big box stores are no-name brands that don’t come with a longer warranty, and the name brand options are usually $30 to $50 more expensive than you’ll find them online. I left without buying anything that day.
Next I spent a whole evening scrolling Amazon after my son went to bed, which is where most parents I talked to ended up buying theirs. The site makes it really easy to filter for exactly what you need: I checked the box for UL 2272 safety certification (the standard that ensures the batteries don’t overheat, which I learned is non-negotiable no matter where you buy) and filtered for max speed under 8 mph, which another mom in my PTA group told me was perfect for kids under 12. Any faster than that, she said, and it’s just too easy for a new rider to lose control on an uneven sidewalk. I found a couple of reputable brands (Jetson and Swagtron) in the $120 to $180 range, which fit my budget, and hundreds of reviews from other parents talking about how their kids had used theirs for a year or more. I ordered one first, but when it showed up, I was surprised how sensitive the controls were—even at the slowest setting, it lurched forward when my son stepped on, and it just felt too fast for a beginner. Returning it wasn’t hard, but it was a hassle to box it back up and drag it to the UPS drop off. The big downside of Amazon is you can’t test it before you buy, so you have to rely on the specs, which don’t always tell the whole story.
I also checked local parent groups and Facebook Marketplace, just to see what was available. So many parents buy a brand new hoverboard for their kid, who rides it for a month and then loses interest, so you can find barely used name brand boards for half the price of new. I found one in my neighborhood that was a year old, barely used, for $60. The mom agreed to let me come test it before I bought it, so I rode it up and down her driveway, checked how long the battery held a full charge (it went an hour, which is more than enough for a kid), checked the label on the bottom to confirm it was UL certified, and wobbled the wheels to check for any damage. The one I tested had none of that, so I bought it. That’s what my son still rides today. The only catch with secondhand is you have to be willing to walk away if something feels off. The first one I looked at had a wonky wheel and a battery that died after 10 minutes, so I just said no thanks.
The only spot I didn’t end up buying from was the local specialty sporting goods store. They had great options, the staff could answer all my questions about weight and speed, and they even assemble it for you so you don’t have to fumble with instructions on a Saturday morning. But the cheapest kid-friendly model they had was $280, which was way more than I wanted to spend for a toy that might end up collecting dust in the garage. If your kid is really into hoverboarding and rides every day, that’s probably worth the extra cost for the warranty and in-store repair service, but it wasn’t for us.
Right now, my son drags his board out every afternoon after homework, rides around the block with his friends, and I haven’t had any issues with it in a year and a half. I got lucky with the secondhand find, but I know that’s not for everyone—if you don’t want to hassle with meeting strangers and testing boards, Amazon with the right filters works just fine for most people. There’s no one perfect place to find the best kids’ hoverboard, it just depends on how much you want to spend and how much time you want to spend looking. I’m already keeping an eye on the parent group for when my younger daughter asks for one in a couple years, and I know exactly where to start.
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