HS Code Detail
851631 Chapter 85 · Electronics Hair dryers
Six-digit subheading in Electronics, chapter 85 of the Harmonized System, priced here for 5 destination markets.
Anatomy of 851631
You will declare against a longer local code that begins 851631: ten digits in the United States and the United Kingdom, eight in the European Union, and the first six the same everywhere. Which trailing digits apply is what the 5 rates below differ on.
What this code covers
Import duty by country
MFN duty rate · 5 countries| Country | Duty | VAT |
|---|---|---|
| 🇨🇦Canada | 0% | 5% |
| 🇩🇪Germany | 2.7% | 19% |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | 2.7% | 23% |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | 2% | 20% |
| 🇺🇸United States | 3.9% | 0% |
Rates shown are MFN (Most Favoured Nation), the default for WTO members. Preferential FTA rates may be lower with valid proof of origin. Section 301 / anti-dumping surcharges on Chinese-origin goods are not included.
What that costs: 851631 into Portugal
An illustrative consignment of 851631 invoiced at EUR 2,000.00, priced in EUR because a threshold is set in the destination's currency and nothing here is converted.
| Goods value on the invoice | EUR 2,000.00 |
| International freight | EUR 120.00 |
| Cargo insurance | EUR 30.00 |
| Value the duty is charged on, CIF basis | EUR 2,150.00 |
| Duty at 2.7% | EUR 58.05 |
| Portugal tax at 23%, charged on the value plus the duty | EUR 507.85 |
| Total, before commercial charges | EUR 2,715.90 |
And if the consignment were small
Portugal relieves nothing: the relief was abolished, so the duty above is charged whatever the consignment is worth. A smaller shipment pays less because the value is lower, not because a threshold spared it.
Selling rather than buying? EUR 2,715.90 is what your buyer in Portugal pays to take delivery of this consignment, yours to pay if you quote DDP and theirs if you quote DAP: Exporting to Portugal sets out who collects it and what your invoice has to say.
An illustration, not a quotation: broker fees, handling and any trade remedy on the origin sit outside it. Price 851631 on your own numbers in the duty calculator.
How these rates were verified
Rates last verified 7 September 2026Every figure in the table above was read from the official tariff database of the market that charges it, on the date shown. Nothing here is copied from another aggregator.
- 🇺🇸US
- HTS General for 851631 US, read on 2026-09-07 from https://hts.usitc.gov/search?query=8516.31 and again on 2026-09-07 from https://hts.usitc.gov/reststop/exportList?from=85&to=86&format=CSV&styles=false. Both returned 3.9%. The United States International Trade Commission is the only body that publishes this schedule. The second reading was taken in a different format to check the reading, not to corroborate the schedule, because there is no second schedule to corroborate it against. Retrieved text: 8516.31.00.00 3.9%
- 🇬🇧GB
- Third country duty for 851631 GB, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/8516310000 and again on 2026-09-07 from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reference-document-for-the-customs-tariff-establishment-eu-exit-regulations-2020. Both returned 2%. The two publications are independent of each other and they agree. Retrieved text: 8516310000 2.00 %
- 🇨🇦CA
- MFN for 851631 CA, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/html/00/ch85-eng.html and again on 2026-09-07 from https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2026/menu-eng.html. Both returned 0%. The Canada Border Services Agency is the only body that publishes this schedule. The Department of Justice publishes the Act and refers readers to the Agency for the schedule itself, so both readings are the Agency's, taken from two different products. Retrieved text: 8516.31.00 Free
- 🇩🇪DE 🇵🇹PT
- One reading covers DE and PT, which are priced from the same schedule: Third country duty (EU, via NI Online Tariff) for 851631 DE, read on 2026-09-07 from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/xi/commodities/8516310000 and again on 2026-09-07 from https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/results?product=851631&origin=CN&destination=DE. Both returned 2.7%. The two publications are independent of each other and they agree. Retrieved text: 8516310000 2.70 %
Markets with no figure recorded
Australia: Two official readings of 8516.31 returned different answers, so no Australia figure is recorded. Averaging them, or preferring one, would publish a number neither reading supports.
Re-check first: Hair dryers carry a United States line and a rate of their own, distinct from the other electrothermic appliances in this heading. A combined hairdressing appliance can fall to 8516.32 instead, which this figure does not cover.
What falls under 851631
- Electro thermic hair dryers
- Handheld and hood hair dryers, and travel dryers with dual voltage
What's specifically excluded
These look similar but belong under a different code:
- 851632: Other electro thermic hairdressing apparatus, including straighteners and curling tongs
- 851680: Electric heating resistors and other electro thermic apparatus
- 841459: Fans without a heating element
Commonly confused with
851632: Straighteners and curling tongs
Heading 8516 gives hair dryers their own subheading and puts every other hairdressing appliance in the next one. Straighteners, curling wands, hot brushes and crimpers are 8516.32, and a multi styler sold with interchangeable heads is argued on principal function between the two.
851680: Other electro thermic apparatus
A hair dryer is a named article, so it never falls to the residual subheading. Importers reaching for 8516.80 for a heated styling product usually have an article that is named more specifically somewhere in the heading.
Classification & cost note
Hair dryers are one of the few consumer appliances with a subheading entirely to themselves, which makes the classification straightforward and shifts the real work onto everything around it. Multi function styling tools are the live question: an appliance sold as a dryer with attachments that also style is classified on principal function, and where the airflow is what does the work it stays here even when the marketing emphasises the styling heads. The compliance load is heavier than the tariff. Hair dryers used near water are subject to specific electrical safety requirements in most markets, commonly including an immersion protection device in the cord, and plug configuration and voltage compatibility are checked as conformity matters rather than customs ones. A dual voltage travel model still needs the correct plug type and approval mark for the market it is sold into.
Typical products: Handheld domestic hair dryers · Professional salon dryers with concentrator nozzles · Dual voltage travel hair dryers · Hood and bonnet dryers for salon use
What the notes to section XVI say
Chapter 85 sits in section XVI, machinery and mechanical appliances; electrical equipment; parts thereof, sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles, where a section note governs every chapter in the section and applies before the heading notes below; the 6 reaching chapter 85 name no heading this site holds a code under, and they are quoted whole on the chapter 85 page, read from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/sections/16 on 2026-09-08.
What the nomenclature says about heading 8516
851631 is a subheading of 8516, electric instantaneous or storage water heaters and immersion heaters; electric space-heating apparatus and soil-heating apparatus; electrothermic hairdressing apparatus (for example, hairdryers, hair curlers, curling tong heaters) and hand dryers; electric smoothing irons; other electrothermic appliances of a kind used for domestic purposes; electric heating resistors, other than those of heading 8545 , and this site holds 4 other codes under the same heading, which every rule below governs equally.
No numbered note to chapter 85 takes heading 8516 as its subject, which is what the published notes say rather than a gap on this page: the heading is defined by its own wording above and by the note to the chapter, quoted in full on the chapter 85 page.
One further note to chapter 85 names heading 8516 from elsewhere in its own text, usually to send goods into it or away from it, and the sentence that names it is quoted below.
Note 4 to chapter 85, which is about something else
The heading does not, however, apply to fans or ventilating or recycling hoods incorporating a fan, whether or not fitted with filters (heading 8414), centrifugal clothes-dryers (heading 8421), dishwashing machines (heading 8422), household washing machines (heading 8450), roller or other ironing machines (heading 8420 or 8451), sewing machines (heading 8452), electric scissors (heading 8467) or to electro-thermic appliances (heading 8516).
Read from the notes to chapter 85 published in the UK Trade Tariff by HM Revenue and Customs, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/chapters/85, with the heading title from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/headings/8516, on 2026-09-07, with the whole layer and the reason a heading note is a chapter note set out on the chapter 85 page. These notes are part of the international text of the Harmonized System, so the rule is the same whichever destination a shipment is going to, and it decides classification and never a rate.
Questions about 851631
Are hair straighteners classified with hair dryers?
No. Hair dryers have their own subheading at 8516.31 and other hairdressing appliances, including straighteners, curling tongs and hot brushes, sit in 8516.32. A multi styler is resolved on principal function between the two.
Does a dual voltage travel dryer need anything special?
Not for classification, but market access requires the correct plug type and national approval marks, and appliances used near water commonly need an integrated immersion protection device. Those are conformity requirements, checked separately from the customs entry.
Related codes in Chapter 85
Calculate duty for HS 851631
Pre-fills the calculator with this code. Add your destination and shipment value for an instant landed-cost estimate.
Country guides