Electric Fidget Spinners Are Going the Way of the Hoverboard (AKA They’re Exploding)

Back in the day, fad toys would be obsessed over, and then they'd suddenly disappear, abandoned below beds to collect dust.

But in our very futuristic age, fads don’t just flame out—they literally explode in a final death scream.

So it seems to be going for fidget spinners, or at least the electric ones.

There have been two separate reports of electric fidget spinners catching fire in America.

A mother in Gardendale, Alabama told Fox’s WBRC that her son’s Bluetooth-enabled spinner burst into flames after 45 minutes of charging.

“He started screaming, I was downstairs, and all I heard was ‘fire, fire!’ and the fidget spinner was literally—it wasn’t smoking, it was in flames,” she said.

Meanwhile, in Fenton, Michigan, another parent told NBC’s WEYI that her own Bluetooth-enabled spinner caught fire after just 30 minutes of charging.

“I know there are tons of kids who want to go get them, but if you plug them in, just stay by and make sure it’s charged and it doesn’t catch on fire,” the adult woman advised.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement to Gizmodo that the incidents are being investigated, and echo the above mother’s recommendation to “stay with products that have batteries when they are charging.”

“Never charge a product with batteries overnight while you are sleeping,” they added.

The battery issue is an echo of the ‘exploding hoverboards’ saga from 2015, and even the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 disaster of ‘16. It seems to be a common problem for any unregulated devices that have batteries and are being rushed to market without proper safety testing.

Germany had it right all along!

Photo: WEYI