Overview
IEC 61855:2003 defines standardized methods of measuring the performance of household electrical hair care appliances used for drying and styling hair. It covers hand-held hairdryers, hairstyling appliances (including those with warm air), curling appliances and accessories. The standard specifies which performance characteristics to measure and how to measure them for comparable, repeatable tests, but it does not set pass/fail performance limits. Certain products are excluded (hair-care appliances with radiant heating, helmet-type dryers and cutting devices) and safety requirements are outside its remit (see IEC 60335-2-23).
Key topics
- Scope and test conditions
- Applies to household and similar hair care appliances and accessories.
- Tests are run in a draught-free room at (23 ± 2) °C and at rated voltage/frequency (±1%).
- Steady-state: typically 10 min for hand-held dryers; 20 min or four thermostat cycles for other appliances.
- Measurements and procedures
- Mass (appliance incl. flexible cord; accessories measured separately).
- Flexible cord length (coiled cords stretched with 10 N before measuring).
- Power input (measured at rated voltage; ±1% measurement accuracy).
- Heating-up time (curling appliances: time to a 100 K rise of barrel temperature).
- Temperatures (outlet air temperature for hairdryers measured using thermocouples; measurements corrected to 23 °C ambient).
- Air flow for hand-held dryers and warm-air styling appliances.
- Drying rate and test cloth procedures for comparative drying performance.
- Attachment and ease of handling for accessories (concentrators, diffusers).
- Drop test and airborne acoustical noise measurements.
- Measurement specifics
- Thermocouples: Class 1 per IEC 60584-2, nominal 0.25 mm diameter, ±1.5 K.
- Outlet air temperature: mean of the five highest measuring points, with distances specified for no attachment (25/100 mm), concentrator (100 mm), and diffuser (50 mm).
Applications and users
IEC 61855 is essential for:
- Manufacturers validating product performance claims and R&D benchmarking.
- Test laboratories performing repeatable comparative tests of hairdryers, curling irons and styling appliances.
- Quality and compliance engineers documenting measured characteristics for technical files.
- Retailers, consumer test organisations and regulators seeking consistent, reproducible performance data for product comparison and labelling.
Keywords: IEC 61855:2003, household electrical hair care appliances, methods of measuring performance, testing hairdryers, outlet air temperature, drying rate, power input, thermocouples.
Related standards
- IEC 60584-2 (thermocouples tolerances)
- IEC 60704-2-9 (airborne acoustical noise - hair care appliances)
- IEC 61254 (electric shavers - measurement methods)
- IEC/TR 61592 (consumer panel testing guidance)
- ISO 2267:1986 (test cloth preparation)
- IEC 60335-2-23 (safety requirements - not covered by IEC 61855)
