Razor Battery Fire: What the CPSC Records Show and What It May Mean for You

What the CPSC's Recall Records Say About Razor Battery Fires

A recall is a corrective action on a product already sold, such as a repair, a replacement or a refund, announced so owners learn about a hazard. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, the Commission may order a manufacturer, distributor or retailer to give public notice of a substantial product hazard and to repair, replace or refund the product, generally after an opportunity for a hearing. The notices below state the remedy but do not describe how each recall came about, so this page does not characterize that either.

The 2016 Razor recall, recall number 16-215, is titled "Razor Recalls Self-Balancing Scooters/Hoverboards Due to Fire Hazard." The CPSC dates it July 06, 2016, and names the product as "Self-balancing scooters/hoverboards." It states the hazard this way: "The lithium-ion battery packs in the self-balancing scooters/hoverboards can overheat, posing a risk of the products smoking, catching fire and/or exploding." The remedy is "Replace," with a free replacement hoverboard "certified to comply with UL 2272." The notice covers about 28,000 units and reports "two reports of the battery packs in the self-balancing scooters/hoverboards catching fire, exploding or smoking. No injuries or property damage have been reported."

The 2021 recall, recall number 21-189, is titled "Razor USA Recalls GLW Battery Packs Sold with Hovertrax 2.0 Self-Balancing Hoverboards Due to Fire Hazard." The CPSC dates it August 25, 2021, and names the product as "Hovertrax 2.0 Self-Balancing Scooters/Hoverboards with GLW Battery Packs." Its hazard statement reads: "The lithium-ion GLW battery packs in the self-balancing scooters/hoverboards can overheat, posing a risk of the products smoking, catching fire and/or exploding." The remedy is "Replace," meaning a free replacement battery pack sent after the GLW pack is returned in a prepaid shipping carton. The notice covers about 237,300 units and reports "more than 20 reports of Hovertrax 2.0 Self-Balancing Hoverboards containing GLW battery packs overheating, including some reports of smoke or fire. No injuries have been reported."

Each notice covers only the specific products it describes, and neither describes a defect across Razor's products. The same distinction appears in other battery recalls, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery recall.

For a family after a fire, this means a recall notice can help show what hazard the CPSC announced for a group of boards, but it does not by itself show what happened to the board in your home. Whether a particular board matches a notice is often one of the first things a conversation with an attorney sorts out.

Who Razor USA LLC Is and What Products This Page Covers

The CPSC notices identify Razor USA LLC as the manufacturer and importer of the hoverboards in the 2016 recall. In the 2021 recall, Razor USA LLC is listed as the importer and distributor. Both notices list the products as manufactured in China.

Both recalls involve the Hovertrax line of self-balancing scooters, which the CPSC notes are "commonly referred to as hoverboards." The CPSC describes them as having "two wheels at either end of articulated dual platforms" and powered by lithium-ion battery packs.

The notices give owners specific ways to identify a covered product:

• The 2016 recall covers non-UL certified Hovertrax brand hoverboards with serial numbers beginning 55X120-01, 55X120-02, 55X110-01, 55X110-02 or 55X230-01, printed on a white sticker on the bottom of the deck or on the charger. They were sold from December 2015 through May 2016.
• The 2021 recall covers removable GLW battery packs installed in UL-Listed Hovertrax 2.0 hoverboards manufactured between September 2016 and August 2017. The packs have "GLW" written in large letters and serial numbers beginning with GLW on a white sticker below the bar code. "Hovertrax 2.0" is printed on the front of the board. The CPSC notes that GLW's packs "were certified as compliant with ANSI/UL Standard 2271 by UL." The boards were sold from September 2016 through 2018 in many colors and patterns listed on the notice.

Each notice also lists the stores and websites where the products were sold.

This page covers only the products named in these two official records and says nothing about any other Razor product. If you are trying to match a board in your home to a notice, the site's lithium battery recall lookup guide walks through the fields one at a time.

If a Hoverboard Battery Caught Fire in Your Home: How Thermal Runaway Happens

A lithium-ion cell stores energy in a small, tightly packed space. When a cell heats past a certain point, chemical reactions inside it can release more heat, which drives more reactions. That self-feeding cycle is called thermal runaway. It can spread from one cell to the cells around it, and it can produce smoke, flame or a burst of gas. The site's page on lithium battery thermal runaway explains the chemistry in more depth.

If you are trying to understand why a board in your home caught fire, the possible starting points generally include an internal flaw in a cell, physical damage such as a crushed or punctured pack, charging beyond safe limits, or heat from outside the battery. A hoverboard pack holds many cells together, so a problem in one cell can matter to the whole pack.

A battery management system, often called a BMS, is the circuitry that watches a pack's voltage, current and temperature. It is meant to cut off charging or power when readings move outside safe ranges. When a BMS fails or is poorly matched to the cells, those protections may not work as intended.

The law sorts product problems into categories. Federal regulations at 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4 describe a defect as "a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function." In plain words:

• A manufacturing defect means the product, as built, differs from its own design, for example through a production error.
• A design defect means the product was built as designed, but the design itself "presents a risk of injury to the public."
• A warning defect means the warnings or instructions could allow an otherwise safe product to present a risk of injury. The regulation notes a defect "can also occur in a product's contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions."

These are general categories, and nothing here says any of them applies to any Razor product or any particular fire. What this means for a family is practical: which of these starting points applies, if any, usually turns on the physical evidence in that one pack, which is why the condition of a burned board and its remains can matter so much.

Whether Anyone May Be Responsible for a Battery Fire Injury

If someone in your family was hurt, the question of responsibility falls under product liability, the area of law that decides when a company that made, imported or sold a product may be legally responsible for harm it caused. State law governs most of these cases, so the rules that apply to you depend on where the injury happened.

For a family after a hoverboard fire, a product liability claim generally turns on three questions: was there a defect in design, manufacturing or warnings; did that defect cause the injury or loss; and what harm resulted? Some claims are framed as negligence, which asks whether a company owed a duty of care, breached it, and caused damages as a result. Whether any of these elements is met depends on the facts of the specific incident.

A recall does not settle those questions. It does not establish that a particular board had the problem, or that the problem caused a particular fire. A fire, even a serious one, is not proof of a defect on its own. The reverse is also true: a product never recalled can still be the subject of a claim, because the question is whether a defect caused the harm.

The law may allow several categories of damages, depending on the state and the facts. These can include medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and property damage. Wrongful death is a claim that certain surviving family members may bring when a person dies because of another party's legally actionable conduct. After a fatal battery fire, it generally follows the same questions of defect and causation. Who may bring it and what it may cover differ from state to state.

Fault rules differ too. Some states reduce or bar recovery when the injured person shares fault, and some limit certain damages. No single state's rule applies everywhere. If you are sorting through a fire that injured someone in your family, these differences are often what shapes the legal picture.

Why the Statute of Limitations Matters If You Were Hurt by a Battery Fire

A statute of limitations is a law that sets a deadline for filing a lawsuit. Once that deadline passes, a court can bar the claim entirely, however strong the facts might otherwise be. That is the concrete stake for anyone hurt in a battery fire, and for families after a death.

Every state sets its own deadlines. The period for a product liability claim can differ from the period for a wrongful death claim, even within the same state. Some states also have a statute of repose, a separate outer limit tied to the product rather than to the injury.

When the clock starts running also varies. In some situations it may run from the date of the fire. In others, the rules of that state may tie the start to when the injury or its cause was discovered. Exceptions, such as rules that may apply when the injured person is a child, also vary by state and by the facts. Because of all this, no single deadline can be stated here as the rule for everyone, and this page does not state how much time any reader has.

For a parent juggling a child's treatment and a damaged home, a filing deadline can feel far from the most pressing concern. It is still one of the few rules that can close off a claim no matter what the evidence shows. If you would like to talk through which deadline may apply to a fire involving your family, you can request a case evaluation to discuss what happened with our attorney.

Records and Information That Often Matter in Battery Fire Cases

If you were hurt, the records that usually matter in a battery fire case fall into a few groups, and each connects to one of the legal questions above.

• Medical records document the injuries, the treatment and the course of recovery. They bear on the harm a claim describes.
• Photographs and video of the product, the room or scene, and the injuries show what the fire did and where it began. They can bear on both cause and harm.
• The product itself, including the battery pack, charger and any remains, is often the most important evidence of whether a defect existed. Experts examining a burned pack look at its physical condition.
• Purchase or order records, along with packaging and serial numbers, help show which model and battery were involved and whether they match a recall notice.
• Fire department and incident reports record what responders observed. An incident report records observations; it does not, on its own, establish what caused a fire.
• Witness names and contact information identify people who saw the board charging, smoking or burning.

Families after a fire often find that some of these items were damaged or lost in the cleanup, and that is common. What remains, and its condition, can affect what a case is able to show.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Speak With an Attorney About a Razor Battery Incident

When a parent sits down to talk about a hoverboard fire, the conversation usually goes more smoothly with a few questions already thought through. None of these require a final answer. They are simply the facts a discussion tends to turn on.

• Is the board, or its battery pack, one named in a CPSC recall notice? The serial number, the "Hovertrax 2.0" marking and any "GLW" label on the pack are the details the notices use.
• What happened, and when? Whether the board was charging, being ridden or sitting idle, and the date and place of the fire, all matter.
• What injuries, losses or property damage resulted, and what treatment followed?
• What records are still available, including the product itself, photos, receipts and reports?
• Who else was present, and who responded?

Each question ties back to the legal issues above: the first to whether a recall notice describes your board, the next three to defect, cause and harm, and the timing to which state deadline may apply. A case evaluation is a conversation with our attorney about what happened, and it can help sort these points out across the product, the recall notices, the injuries and treatment, the records on hand and the timeline.