One of the things that is high on the wish list of many young people for birthdays and Christmas is hoverboards. However, when you start looking into buying a hoverboard, whether it is for yourself or someone else, you might feel like a fish out of water.

You might also remember news stories in the the past of hoverboards overheating and catching on fire, which only makes the process of selecting a hoverboard to buy feel even more daunting.

So what do you need to know to find a quality hoverboard that won’t catch on fire, has the features you are looking for, and won’t break your budget.

What Are Hoverboards And What Do They Do?

I really wish I could tell you that hoverboards, which are also called self balancing scooters, on sale today were like what we saw in “Back to the Future”, but they are not.

Instead of actually floating above the ground hoverboards are like mini-segways without any handlebars. Once you get on the hoverboard you can just lean forward to glide forward and lean back to go in reverse.