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Australians have often struggled with what common laundry symbols really mean, with many permanently ruining their clothes by not knowing how to care for them properly.
Clothing usually has a label that informs the user at what temperature the garment should be washed, whether it is dryer-safe, and whether it needs to be ironed or steamed.
Vivien Fodor, clothing care expert at appliance brand Hotpoint, recently published an expert guide on how to identify the symbols on your clothes so you can care for them with confidence and extend their life.
What do washing symbols on clothes mean?
“The machine wash symbol is usually a tub full of water, with dots or numbers inside to indicate the maximum recommended temperature,” Ms. Fodor revealed.
One dot means 30°C, two dots mean 40°C and four dots mean the garment should be washed at 60°C.
The water tub will have a hand on it if you need to hand wash an item of clothing and a large cross if it is dry clean only.
The machine wash symbol is usually a tub full of water, with dots or numbers inside to indicate the maximum recommended temperature.
What do drying symbols on clothes mean?
“The tumble dry symbol is a circle inside a square, which indicates that the garment can be safely tumble dried, unless there is a cross over the square, which means the garment is not safe to dry.” on the machine,” Mrs. Fodor said.
As with washing machines, the dots inside the drying symbol also indicate the temperature: one dot for low temperature, two for medium temperature and three for high temperature.
Ms. Fodor added: “The absence of dots means that you can tumble dry your clothes at any temperature without damaging them.”
The symbol for tumble drying is a circle inside a square, with dots indicating temperatures.
What do ironing symbols on clothes mean?
Care labels with ironing instructions contain an iron symbol with dots for temperature setting.
The absence of dots indicates that the clothing can be safely ironed at any temperature.
“Delicate garments usually have one point, which means a maximum temperature of 110°C, while synthetic garments have two indicating they can be ironed at 150°C, and cotton clothing usually has three points that can withstand 200°C,” Ms. Fodor shared.
The absence of dots indicates that the clothing can be safely ironed at any temperature.
iPhone users who have updated their phones to iOS 17 will also find that the new ‘Visual Look Up’ tool can impressively decipher laundry symbols.
iPhone users who have updated their phones to iOS 17 will also find that the new ‘Visual Look Up’ tool can impressively decipher laundry symbols.
To use the wash feature, simply take a photo of your item’s label, with the symbols visible.
Then, go to the Photos app, click on the photo and swipe up or tap the “info” symbol at the bottom.
There is then the option to press “Search Laundry Care” below the text title field.
Pressing it will take you to a list of websites found by Siri that explain what each symbol means.