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The Wash Guide

Dry cleaning symbols, and what each one means.

The circle is the one family on a care label not addressed to you. The letters inside tell a professional cleaner which solvent the article can take, and the bars underneath tell them how gently to run the process. You are not expected to act on any of it beyond handing the garment over.

P and F are dry cleaning, and they are not interchangeable: P allows perchloroethylene or hydrocarbons, F allows hydrocarbons only, so an F garment given the P process can be damaged. W is professional wet cleaning, which is a water process rather than a solvent one. A crossed-out circle rules that kind of cleaning out altogether.

Both

Dry clean, P

Professional dry cleaning in perchloroethylene or hydrocarbons.

Both

Dry clean, P, mild

As P, but a mild process.

Both

Dry clean, F

Professional dry cleaning in hydrocarbons only.

Both

Dry clean, F, mild

As F, but a mild process.

US & Canada

Dry clean, any solvent

Professional dry cleaning in any solvent.

American labels only. ISO has dropped the A, since naming the permitted solvents is more useful to the cleaner than permitting all of them.

Both

Do not dry clean

No professional dry cleaning.

International

Professional wet cleaning

Professional wet cleaning, a water process, with no restrictions.

International only. The American chart in general circulation predates the W and does not carry it.

International

Professional wet cleaning, mild

Wet cleaning with reduced mechanical action.

International

Professional wet cleaning, very mild

Wet cleaning with much reduced mechanical action.

International

Do not wet clean

No professional wet cleaning.

International only, for the same reason as the W itself.

Where it sits on the label

  1. Washing
  2. Bleaching
  3. Drying
  4. Ironing
  5. Professional care

Professional care comes fifth of the five. A label is always written in this order and simply leaves out whatever does not apply, so a tag carrying only three symbols is not missing anything.

The rest of the label

Or search the whole set by describing what you can see on the decoder.