Posted on July 6, 2010 - by admin
Laundry Care Symbols
A guide to the Laundry Symbols on the Washing Care Label
Ever wonder what those symbols on the care label of your clothing means? Look no further, this post will try to explain them all.
Quick Symbol Lookup
Wash Symbols
Bleach Symbols
Dry Symbols
Iron Symbols
Dry Cleaning Symbols
The Wash Symbol
Wash
This symbol shows you if the item can be machine washed or if it has to be hand washed. It also tells you what the maximum washing temperature is and what cycle to use when machine washing.
The symbol can also indicate that the clothing item must not be washed. If that’s the case it is usually accompanied with an appropriate dry clean symbol.
Can I Wash This Garment?
Some garments, usually the finer ones, needs some extra care when they get dirty. Some of them should not be machine washed while others must be taken to the dry-cleaners for a chemical treatment.
These symbols tells you what extra precautions need to be taken when cleaning the garment.
Machine Wash
Hand Wash
Do Not Wash
The machine wash symbol is usually combined with the temperature and cycle marks below.
When you stumble upon a hand wash symbol it means the clothing is too delicate to stand the somewhat rough environment in the washing machine and you have to wash it by hand. Some modern washing machines have special hand wash programs that will allow washing delicates, like wool, in the machine, just check the user guide of your washer for directions.
A do not wash symbol means that piece of clothing shouldn’t be washed in water, not even hand washed. The do not wash symbol is usually accompanied by a dry cleaning symbol that tells the dry cleaner what dry cleaning processes are acceptable.
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Washing TemperatureUsing the right temperature is essential for getting the best washing result. Too high water temperature will often destroy the textile or make the colors bleed or fade. Too low temperature may leave the clothing item with stains still on it. The dots inside the wash symbol tells you the highest temperature the garment will take before being damaged. |
Wash Cycle
 Delicate Cycle Wash your delicate items using the delicate cycle on your washing machine and separate from other clothing. You can try putting delicates inside a pillow case and close with a knot to protect them from the washing machine. |
Bleach Symbols
 Bleach Bleaching makes the clothing more white and is useful when white textiles have become dull and grey. There are only three symbols connected to bleching. Bleach, do not bleach and no chlorine bleach. If no symbol is present it usually menans that bleaching is ok. |
 Bleach BleachYou may bleach this garment with any laundry bleach. Just follow the instructions carefully as too much chlorine based bleach can destroy your garments. |
 Do Not Bleach  Do Not Bleach Do not bleachDo not use any kind of bleaching agents on this garment. |
 Non-Chlorine Bleach Only Non-chlorine bleach onlyOn this garment, use only bleaches that do not contain chlorine. They are not hard to find, search for a bleach marked no chlorine or color safe in the supermarket. |
Dry Symbols
 Dry There is four ways you can dry what you have washed. The two most common is in the tumbler and on the line. Some clothing demand more serious drying, like dripping wet hanging on a line or flat drying. If your clothes demand special drying this is the symbol to search for on the care label. If it’s not present you can use line drying and in most cases the tumbler will work as well. |
 Tumble Dry, Low Heat  Tumble Dry, Medium Heat  Tumble Dry, High Heat Tumble DryThe dots indicate the maximum heat setting. If there is no dots you can use any heat setting. |
 Do Not Dry!  Do Not Tumble Dry Do Not DryYou have to dry your clothes eventually if you want to wear them, so this symbol has a bit of a misleading name. When you see a “do not dry” or “do not tumble dry” symbol it means you shouldn’t put that piece of clothing in a machine dryer. Most of the time there will be an additional symbol with the recommended drying method. |
Iron Laundry Symbols Iron The ironing symbols tells you what the best temperature is for ironing your laundry. If you use a higher temperature than the one indicated on the label you could destroy both the clothing and the iron. If the fabric contains syntetic fibres it can even melt and make a sticky mess of the iron and board. Some garments must not be steam ironed and there’s a special symbol for that. Some garments you are not allowed to iron at all, they will have the do not iron symbol on the label. |
 Do Not Iron! Do Not Iron!When you see this symbol, do not iron that item! |
Dry Cleaning Symbols
 Dry Clean If one or several of the dry-cleaning symbols are present it is usually accompanied with a do-not-wash symbol.Most of the time you don’t need to understand the different symbols for dry-cleaning as a professional dry-cleaner will know what they mean when you take the garment there. |
 Do Not Dry Clean Do not dryclean!Don’t put this item in drycleaning solvents |
