Class 3 — Flammable liquids
Liquids with a flash point at or below 60 °C, the largest class in consumer shipping.
What actually falls under Flammable liquids
Class 3 is the workhorse of consumer dangerous-goods shipping because the flash-point test (closed-cup, at or below 60 °C per 49 CFR 173.120) catches an enormous range of ordinary retail products: nail polish and remover, hand sanitiser, perfume, printing ink, paint, solvent-based adhesives, and most alcoholic beverages above 24% ABV. The packing group split — I for an initial boiling point at or below 35 °C, II for a flash point below 23 °C, III for 23–60 °C — decides the packaging performance standard, and it is common for sellers to assign packing group from flash point alone and miss the boiling-point override that bumps a product to the more stringent group I. Fifteen entries are encoded here, more than any other class, because retail flammable liquids are the single largest source of classification requests Classify7 sees.
Carrier acceptance
The published default for this class. A UN-specific rule can override it — lithium batteries and dry ice are both Class 9 and are treated quite differently.
| Carrier | Ground | Air | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS | contract required | contract required | Flammable liquids accepted under the hazmat agreement. Limited quantity ground is the usual route for retail-packaged goods. |
| FedEx | contract required | contract required | Flammable liquids require dangerous goods approval; limited quantity moves on FedEx Ground without one. |
| USPS | restricted | prohibited | Flammable liquids in packing group III are mailable by surface only as a limited quantity. Packing group I and II flammable liquids are non-mailable. |
| Amazon FBA | review required | restricted | Flammable liquids accepted after dangerous goods review. Packing group I is generally refused; packing groups II and III are the normal FBA cases. |
Carrier positions encode each carrier's published default as of the ruleset date. Tariffs change more often than regulations, and a contracted shipper may hold different terms — confirm against the carrier's current guide before the first shipment of a new item.
Encoded entries (15)
| UN | Proper shipping name | Class | PG | Labels | Air |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UN1993 | Flammable liquids, n.o.s. | 3 | I/II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1170 | Ethanol solution | 3 | II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1219 | Isopropanol | 3 | II | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1230 | Methanol(subsidiary 6.1) | 3 | II | FLAMMABLE LIQUID, TOXIC | pax forbidden·cargo permitted |
| UN1263 | Paint or Paint related material | 3 | I/II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1266 | Perfumery products with flammable solvents | 3 | II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN3065 | Alcoholic beverages | 3 | II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1133 | Adhesives, containing a flammable liquid | 3 | I/II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1203 | Gasoline | 3 | II | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax forbidden·cargo forbidden |
| UN1202 | Diesel fuel | 3 | III | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1210 | Printing ink, flammable | 3 | I/II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1294 | Toluene | 3 | II | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1090 | Acetone | 3 | II | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1173 | Ethyl acetate | 3 | II | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
| UN1866 | Resin solution, flammable | 3 | I/II/III — derived | FLAMMABLE LIQUID | pax limited·cargo permitted |
Classify a specific product in this class
The class alone does not give you a shipping paper. Send the actual product to POST /api/classify and you get the UN number, the proper shipping name, the packing group and every carrier position for that specific item.
Questions
- What is Class 3 — Flammable liquids?
- Liquids with a flash point at or below 60 °C, the largest class in consumer shipping.
- Does Class 3 — Flammable liquids have a packing group?
- Yes for most entries. Packing group I is the highest danger, II medium, III low. Where an entry's packing group depends on a measured property (a flash point for Class 3, a concentration for Class 8), Classify7 asks for that figure rather than assuming one.
- Can I ship Class 3 — Flammable liquids by air?
- UPS: contract required; FedEx: contract required; USPS: prohibited; Amazon FBA: restricted. These are published carrier defaults, not regulatory limits — a contracted shipper may hold different terms, and the regulation may permit what the carrier declines.