Here’s how to understand care labels and instructions for washing, drying, ironing, etc.
Washing: symbol of a tub for machine washing
- Crossed out: not to be washed in the washing machine
- With a hand: hand wash, with a maximum temperature of 40°C
- One line under the tub: synthetic program, which means normal washing, decreasing rinse temperature and reduced spin speed
- Two lines under the tub: wool or delicate washing program
- With a figure: indication of the maximum temperature to be used
Symbols involving laundry drying are square in shape
1. Machine drying: square symbol containing a circle
- One dot: very delicate, dry at 60°C maximum
- Crossed out: not to be machine dried
- Two dots: delicate, dry at 80°C maximum
2. Air drying: square symbol containing various lines
- One horizontal line: dry flat after spinning in the washing machine
- Two horizontal lines: dry flat without machine spinning
- One vertical line: hang after spinning in the washing machine
- Two vertical lines: hang without machine spinning
Ironing: symbol of an iron. The number of dots corresponds to what is indicated on the iron itself.
- Crossed out: do not iron
- One dot: very delicate, ironing at a maximum temperature of 110°C
- Two dots: delicate, ironing at a maximum temperature of 150°C
- Three dots: ironing at a normal temperature of 200°C
Bleaching: triangle symbol
- White: all bleaching is allowed
- Crossed out: do not bleach
Professional cleaning: the circle
- The crossed out white circle: no dry cleaning allowed
- The crossed out black circle: no water cleaning allowed
The lines under the circle indicate the intensity of the authorized cleaning
- No line: normal cleaning
- One line: moderate cleaning
- Two lines: very moderate cleaning
The letters in the circle indicate the products to be used
- P: dry cleaning with products based on perchloroethylene and other petroleum solvents
- F: dry cleaning with only petroleum solvents
- W: professional cleaning with water