DECIPHERING CARE LABELS

First time washing a garment? Make sure to check the care tag and if you need help deciphering care symbols, Hangers Cleaners is here to help.

Clothing care symbols represent instructions for 5 areas of care: washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and dry cleaning.

Deciphering Care Symbols for Washing

Wash symbols look like a bucket filled with water.

• Dots: Dots on this symbol indicate what the temperature of the water should be when this garment is washed in a washing machine. One dot indicates that the garment should be washed in cold water. Two dots mean warm and three mean hot.
• Underline: If the garment needs to be washed on a specific kind of washing machine cycle. There will be lines under the bucket indicating what kind . If there is one line under the bucket, the garment should be washed on permanent press or a similar cycle. Two lines indicate the need for a gentle cycle.
• Hand Symbol: In most cases the bucket symbol indicates that the garment can be machine washed. However, if the bucket symbol also features a hand symbol, that means the garment should only be washed by hand.
• “X” Symbol: A bucket with an “X” symbol over it means that the garment should not be washed.

Deciphering Care Symbols for Bleaching

Deciphering care symbol for bleach isn’t hard. If there are specific care instructions regarding bleach for your garment, they will be indicated by a triangle symbol.

A plain triangle means that you may bleach the garment as needed. Some garments can only be bleached with non-chlorine bleach. If your garment’s care tag has a triangle with stripes, use non-chlorine bleach as needed.

Some garments should not be bleached at all. These garments will have a triangle with an “X” symbol over it.

Deciphering Care Symbols for Drying

Drying instructions will be indicated on the care tag by a circle in a square symbol.

• Solid Circle: Dry the garment with no heat.
• Dots: One dot means low heat, two dots means medium heat and three dots mean high heat.
• Underlines: Like the washing symbol, the drying symbol can be underlined with one or two lines. One line means permanent press and two lines means to dry the garment on a gentle drying setting.

Does your garment require a unique drying process after a wash. Here’s what to look for when deciphering care symbols.

• A square with a curved line at the top indicates the garment should be line dried.
• A square with three vertical lines means that the garments need to be drip dried.
• A horizontal line in the square means that the garment should be dried laying flat.

Deciphering Care Symbols for Ironing

There are 5 care symbols for ironing.

• Low Heat: An iron symbol with one dot.
• Medium Heat: Iron symbol with two dots.
• High Heat: An iron symbol with three dots.
• No Steam: The steam below the iron symbol will be covered with an “X” symbol.
• Do Not Iron: The iron symbol will be covered with an “X” symbol.

Deciphering Care Symbols for Dry Cleaning

Last but not least, if your care tag has a circle with no “X” symbol covering it, it needs to be dry cleaned. Hangers Cleaners was voted best dry cleaners in the metro. We proudly serve central Arkansas.

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Still have questions about how to care for your garment? Stop by and let us help!