Where to Find the Best Hoverboard for Kids: Practical Tips From a Parent Who’s Already Shopped Around
Last April, I stood in the checkout line at Target, a neon-blue no-name hoverboard tucked under my arm, and my 9-year-old son Leo bounced so hard on his heels the candy display jiggled. He’d begged for a hoverboard for three months, ever since he saw his best friend zooming around the neighborhood park, and I’d jumped at the 40% off sticker that brought the price down to $119. It fit my budget perfectly, or so I thought. Then Karen, the mom I often sat with at soccer practice, stepped into line behind me, glanced at the box, and winced. “I bought that exact one for my son last Christmas,” she said. “The left wheel fell off on his third ride. Good luck getting ahold of customer service.” That was how my two-week deep dive into where to actually buy a good hoverboard for kids started.
I put the box back on the shelf right there, Leo pouted all the way to the car and ate two frozen lollipops in the backseat to soften the letdown. I got it, he was disappointed, but I also knew better than to waste over $100 on a toy that’d end up in the donation bin before the end of the month. What I didn’t know was how many different options there were for buying a hoverboard, and how different the quality is depending on where you shop.
I started at the big box stores, just to confirm Karen’s take. The cheap, no-name models tucked in the back of the toy aisle are almost always made with low-quality lithium batteries that haven’t passed current safety tests, and their weight limits are almost always lower than advertised. I checked that $119 model again when I went back later, and it maxed out at 65 pounds—Leo already weighed 70, and he’s growing an inch every three months. That thing would have been overloaded the first time he rode it. The upside to big box stores, though, is that if you need a hoverboard for a birthday party that weekend, you can grab a name brand model from their front-of-store display, and if something’s wrong out of the box, you can return it in person same day. I ended up crossing that off my list because I had a couple weeks to wait, but it’s a solid option if you’re in a pinch, as long as you skip the no-name deals.
Next I spent three nights scrolling Amazon. Like most parents, I default to Amazon for almost everything, but I quickly learned that most of the top-ranked hoverboards there have fake reviews. The first one I looked at had 12,000 five-star reviews, but when I filtered out the ones that were obviously given in exchange for a discount, half the remaining reviews said the battery died within a month. That said, if you stick to the official Amazon store for well-known brands like Swagtron, Gotrax, or Segway, you’re pretty safe. All of those brands list their current safety certifications clearly, they offer 1-2 year warranties, and their prices are usually 10-15% lower than you’ll find in store.
Then I drove down to our local independent toy store, just to see what they had. The owner, a guy named Mike who’s been selling toys here for 20 years, let Leo test a mid-range model in the big open back room he uses for trial runs. Mike told me he only carries two brands, because those are the only ones he gets less than one return a year on. The price was $50 more than the same model on Amazon, but he offered free tune-ups and any small repairs for the first year, which seemed like a pretty good deal. If I’d had the extra room in my budget, I would have bought it right there—being able to drop it off if something goes wrong instead of shipping it back across the country is worth a lot for busy parents.
I also checked our local parent Facebook group for secondhand options, since I know a lot of kids get bored of hoverboards after a few months and sell them for cheap. My neighbor offered me her daughter’s old one for $40, it was only a year old and barely used. It was a great deal, but it was pink, and Leo was dead set on blue, so we passed. But for parents who are on a tight budget, or who just want to see if their kid will actually stick with riding before buying new, secondhand is a totally solid option. I picked up a few hard rules from other parents in the group, though: always ask the seller to charge it fully the night before you come look, so you can test it riding around for 10 minutes to make sure the battery holds a charge. Check the frame around the wheel wells for tiny cracks that don’t show up in photos, and never buy one that’s been in a hard crash—internal damage can make it cut out mid-ride, which is a safety hazard.
What I didn’t expect to realize through all this is that buying the right hoverboard isn’t just about not wasting money. Leo has never been super into outdoor team sports, but he rides his hoverboard to the park every weekend now, and he’s gotten so much better at balancing, judging speed, and avoiding obstacles. It’s the first activity he’s chosen to do outside every week without me nagging him to get off his tablet. If we’d bought that cheap one that broke after three rides, he probably would have given up on it entirely.
We ended up going with a mid-range Swagtron from the official Amazon store, it cost $180, has the current UL 2272 safety certification, and is rated for up to 150 pounds, so it’ll last him a few more years. It’s been 8 months now, and the Bluetooth speaker he begged for stopped working two weeks ago. He doesn’t even care—he just rides it without music. I contacted the warranty, and they’re sending a replacement part for free, no questions asked.
Leo already talks about getting an off-road hoverboard when he turns 12, so we’ve got a couple years to save up and shop around again. For now, this one works, it gets him outside, and I don’t lie awake worrying about the battery catching fire while it charges in the garage. That’s more than I can say for that $119 no-name model I almost bought back in April.
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