Washing symbols, and what each one means.
The tub comes first on any care label, and it answers three questions at once: whether the article can be washed at home at all, how hot the water may be, and how roughly the machine may treat it. A crossed-out tub rules out all of it. A tub with a hand in it means by hand only.
The number inside is a ceiling rather than a recommendation, so anything cooler is safe. The bars underneath ask the machine to be gentler: one bar is a mild cycle, two is very mild. This is also where the two standards part company most visibly, because the international symbol prints the temperature as a number and the American one prints dots, and calls that same single bar permanent press.
Wash at 30°C
Machine wash, 30°C maximum.
The international symbol prints the number. The American one prints one dot, and calls it cool or cold, which its own chart puts at 65 to 85°F.
Wash at 30°C, mild
30°C maximum, with reduced mechanical action.
Same bar, different name. ISO calls it a mild cycle. American labels call it permanent press.
Wash at 30°C, very mild
30°C maximum, with much reduced mechanical action.
ISO calls two bars very mild; American labels call it delicate or gentle.
Wash at 40°C
Machine wash, 40°C maximum.
Two dots on an American label, marked warm, which its chart puts at 105°F.
Wash at 50°C
Machine wash, 50°C maximum.
Three dots, marked hot at 120°F, is ordinary on an American label. The number 50 is permitted internationally but rare in the shops; GINETEX's own consumer set skips from 40 to 60.
Wash at 60°C
Machine wash, 60°C maximum.
Four dots on an American label, marked very hot at 140°F, and drawn as a square of four rather than a row.
Wash at 70°C
Machine wash, 70°C maximum.
International only. American labels stop at four dots, so 70 has no ASTM equivalent.
Wash at 95°C
Machine wash, 95°C maximum. A boil wash.
International only, and increasingly rare on any label.
Hand wash
Hand wash only. 40°C maximum, or cooler still on a recent label.
Revised in 2023. ISO 3758:2023 changed this symbol and added a second hand-wash mark for washing at ambient temperature. GINETEX names both without publishing either drawing, so the long-standing hand tub is shown here, which is what labels in circulation carry.
Do not wash
No domestic washing, by hand or machine.
Revised in 2023. ISO 3758:2023 changed this drawing, and GINETEX names the change without publishing the new artwork. Shown here in the long-standing form, which is what almost every label in circulation carries.
Where it sits on the label
Washing comes first 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
- Bleaching symbols3 symbols
- Drying symbols13 symbols
- Ironing symbols6 symbols
- Dry cleaning symbols10 symbols
Or search the whole set by describing what you can see on the decoder.