This group of UK washing symbols helps you decide if your clothing is safe to wash in your washing machine, and which setting, and what temperature you should use.
It is generally depicted as a bucket filled with water (except for the ‘Do not wring’ symbol). If the garment is machine washable, then you’ll either see dots or numbers inside the bucket symbol, representing the recommended maximum temperature: one dot means 30 °C (meaning that you have to wash your clothing in cold water), two dots 40 °C (warm water), and four dots 60 °C. In case you see one line drawn underneath the bucket, it means that your piece of clothing should be washed on a synthetic cycle, while two lines represent the gentle or wool wash cycle. If you find the hand wash symbol on your garment’s fabric care label, wash the item by hand at 40 °C or lower, or use your washing machine’s hand wash program.
Bleaching symbols on washing labels
Before you turn to your bottle of bleach to make your whites shine like they used to, it’s worth taking a look at your garment’s fabric care label to see if the clothing can handle bleaching agents.
Drying guidelines on clothing labels
In addition to washing and ironing, the laundry process also includes drying. To prevent your garment from shrinking or becoming misshapen when drying, you can find a number of helpful symbols on the fabric care label, informing you of the most surefire way to dry your clothes without causing any damage to the fabric.
Ironing symbols on fabric labels
Ironing symbols depict an iron with dots inside representing the maximum temperature that you should use to iron the garment.
Dry cleaning symbols on fabric labels
Some garments are better off being handled by a professional: that’s when dry cleaning comes into the picture. The below symbols are intended to help you decide if your piece of clothing should be dry cleaned, and to tell the dry-cleaner what solvent to use.
Additional dry cleaning instructions
When dealing with your most delicate pieces of clothing, your dry-cleaner appreciates every help they get.
That’s why fabric manufacturers include many dry cleaning symbols on clothing labels, represented by the combination of a circle and a straight line.
That’s why fabric manufacturers include many dry cleaning symbols on clothing labels, represented by the combination of a circle and a straight line.