Laundry-Symbols, How to get the best from the wash care labels

The industry wash care labels help you choose the correct wash program for your garment

For Wash-Care-Labels-a-Quick-Guide click the picture link

The Common Industry standard washcare labels

Before going to look at the symbols take a quick look at the fundamentals of cleaning. Or you can scroll down to the SYMBOLS portion now

To help you understand the reason for wash care symbols and labels you have to understand how the wash process works and what to expect from your washing machine. It's worth taking the extra time to read this page through to understand how the wash care labels work.

Or you can go straight to the symbols explanation below.

I hope it helps if you have questions or comments please make contact using contacts page.

The fundamentals of cleaning.

Sorting the clothes.

What ever you need to know about Laundry-Symbols, Wash, care, Label, Detergent, cleaning, program, pre-spotting, solvents,stain remover, here at Laundry-Symbols I will bring you the answers.

You will understand them and be able to match them to the cleaning process best suited to the fabrics and dyes in your garments or soft funishings.

All clothes and items to be washed should be sorted into like products and colours.

White cottons heavily soiled items which will require the hottest wash with the most mechanical action should be collected and placed in the washing machine with enough space left in the drum to allow for the maximum drop from top to bottom of the drum.

If they are not too bulky they will settle when water is brought in to the machine which will give them extra space to get the mechanical action they require.

Heavily soiled items may be improved by pre-spotting with a proprietary stain remover for the particular type of soiling.

Coloured items or dark fabrics should be washed separately, and depending on the type of fibres and soiling should be washed as cottons, non-iron, delicates, after checking on the wash care label.

Wash items with similar labels together after separating them.

Pre Spotting

Heavily soiled items may be improved by pre-spotting with a proprietary stain remover for the particular type of soiling.

Pre-spotting can be as simple as brushing caked mud or spraying a solution of detergent and water to help the wash process.

By brushing and spraying the liquid into the stain before the wash process the detergents can start softening the soiling so that it can be removed and floated off during the wash process in the machine.

Where there are stains of blood, ink with a wax base, tar oil from the beach or garage and paint you will require a spotter containing a solvent, these can be purchased and kept in the cupboard ready for the day that you need them.

Grass stains are one common stain which will be removed more easily in the wash if it has been pre-spotted with a light brushing to get the softening process started.

With blood always try to wash out with cold water before it dries hard, dried on blood is quite difficult to remove and may leave a rust mark after washing which will be fixed permanently by the hot water in the wash.

Always Check your Laundry-Symbols for the correct program.

If you have some knowledge or expertise you would like to share with the world wide web that would help someone, click on the link and take a look at how easy it is with site build it and all their free books to download, Share my knowledge with the web the easy way.

If in doubt always use your Pre-wash selector button on your machine.

This is normally an add-on program at the front end before the main wash and is normally a very cool wash with light mechanical action with quite a high water level.

This is important for blood stains, grass stains, and any stain of an unknown origin.

Use a biological detergent in this section so that the enzymes can set to work on the stain.

Then you can drop back to non-biological for the rest of the wash program if you wish, but biological detergents will always deal with stains better than a non-bio, especially blood. Learn more about detergent basics

Soiling can be put into groups:

What this means is that 10% of soiling is water soluble -salts, sugars, sweat-

15% is solvent soluble-oils, greases, waxes, finishing agents.

The bulk of the soiling or 75% are insoluble-soot, dust, pigments these have to be held in suspension during the wash then rinsed out and drained away during the wash process.

This means that a modern detergent has to dissolve or remove the soiling from the fibres of the material being washed and then hold the greases and insoluble particles in suspension so that they do not get re-deposited back onto the garment before rinsing and draining.

This is why clothes are fresher smelling after washing than when dry cleaned.

This is because a lot of the soils are diluted and not removed completely during the draining and filtering of the cleaning fluid, which means a small amount is retained within the fibres.

This is prevalent when dealing with urine and sweat on clothing such as trousers which have been dry cleaned.

Where there is a regular problem with bladder weakness it is always best to wear washable clothing, which can be washed thoroughly and left fresh and free from any odour.

This also applies for sports clothing which is best washed to rid the garment of sweat as opposed to just diluting it across the garment.

In fact where sweat has stained the underarm area of a garment washing is the best policy in the long term.

There are now available chemical additives for washing woollen suitings which enable the protection of fibres during the wash process from the swelling and felting.

These silicon products adhere to the fibres which allows them to slip past each other without the damage which would cause shrinkage in a normal wash.

An analogy we can use is, if you take a fresh cabbage leaf - which is after all vegetable fibres in the raw- after placing a leaf in boiling water for a short time the fibres swell and become soft and malleable.

This is exactly what happens to the fibres of your garment, and if the wash is too harsh the damage is permanent. So a balance has to be drawn so that the soiling can be swollen and desolved without permanent damage to the fabric of your garment.

Laundry-Symbols follow the guidelines all the time and you will not go wrong.

Wash Care Labels

The Circle Symbol for Dry Cleaning guide

An A within the circle means cleaning with all conventional solvents is OK.

A P within the circle means use Perchlorethylene and mild solvents.

An F within the circle means cleaning only in mild solvents (the old CFC113) or a white spirit.

An X through the circle means do not dry clean.

The Hand Ironing Symbol

One dot means low temperature ironing for delicates or synthetics 120°C

Two dots means Woollens and silks 150°C

Three dots means Cottons and Linen at 200°C

A large X through the Iron means non Iron or do not Iron.

The Bath Symbol or wash temperature label

This is the most important Laundry-Symbol when it comes to choosing your wash program for your washing machine.

This gives the different temperatures for wet wash processing which will effect the dyes and fibres of the fabric.

If there is a line underneath the bath sign or the circle sign it means low mechanical action is required or a deep water level like a woollens program on your washing machine.

It means that for woollens the fabrics are gently agitated for short times with long rests between agitation so as to allow the fibres to recover. This prevents shrinkage and felting. felting is where the garment tightens up so that the material changes from normal cloth to felt as in a felt hat.

For More Information on How to do Laundry

The Triangle or chloride bleach Laundry-symbols

If there is large X through the triangle this means do not use bleaching agents in the wash or penultimate rinse which is where the bleach is normally introduced into your washing machine. Care should be taken that undiluted bleach does not touch the clothing or damage to the colour and fabric wil be permanent and final.

If you follow all these guidelines your wash day blues will all be golden, and your fabrics will last for many years longer than they would have if you had ignored the advice.

The Tumble Dryer Symbol

There is also a tumble dryer symbol which will show the temperature or may have a large X through it which means do not tumble dry.

Laundry-Symbols Here is a Typical washcare label for a Woollen Garment.

As you can see this typical wash care label ia for a woollen garment, which means if you look at the symbols starting at the top right hand side the wash bath symbol. This says hand hot water with a picture of a hand in the wash bath.

The Triangle with a cross through it means no bleaching agents and the text adds that a non biological detergent should be used.

The Cross through the Tumble dryer means dry on the line which also explained in the text, preferably flat.

The iron sign with one dot means low temperature or minimum setting 120 degres Celcius on your steam iron.

The drycleaning symbol with the P in the middlle means cleaning with Perchlorethylene or mild solvents.

This is a guide for the dry cleaning operative.

You can have a look at the Japanese Laundry-Symbols and see that they are very similar except they give the temperatures in in Celcius.

For more information on Detergent and how it works in the washing process follow the link.

If You have lime scale build up and hard water problems

Share your knowledge on the net it's easy peasy

If I had spent a couple of hours every spare day I could have completed it sooner, not that it will ever be complete as there is new things coming out all the time. Follow the links and you'll be amazed If you have knowledge to share on the net check this out. I started to build this site in November 2005 and by November 2009 it was receiving over 17,500 visitors a month and building nicely. And I hope every visitor goes away with the right information they were seeking, and are happy to come back again.

You could have a look at my Site Build It Page Where all the links to Site Build Pages reside with free PDF file downloads of some super books at Free trial at site build it. There's enough reading to make you into the number one expert in planning and building a website from scratch in a matter of weeks. I am still learning and reading the selection I downloaded at the beginning.

Local Business Booster! Why would a business need a website?

Because the Internet and the web is here to stay, And if your website does not drive targeted traffic to your business, then it's time to take ACTION NOW!

Because the number of people buying local goods and services on line increases every working day, and the number coming through your door will decline as customers vote with their keyboards.

Butchers can sell meat online, Hairdressers, Dentists, Doctors, Vets can all book their appointments on line.

Local one man Builders, Painters, Decorators and Plumbers can all quote on line, and arrange a suitable time to call without having to answer the phone whilst up a ladder on a job.

And so on what ever your business speciality you will beat the competion to the best contracts with an SBI Website.....Have a look at Discover how to have a site built to your requirements Now. This service will not be a friend or relation building a few pages on the net,or a highly expensive hosting service form your local chamber of comerce, which look flashy and pretty with not one visitor getting referred. This is the full service to drive targeted customers to your site.

And you are in control all the time.

Or if you wish to do it yourself because you have the time available have a look at Another Business Booster, which you can drive yourself. It’s not often that I take time from my busy schedule (Walking the dog, Gardening, feeding the chickens) to endorse a product, but, in this instance, I felt that I had to.

Why?

Because, put simply , the SBI site building tools are second to none in the business world wide and are absolutely the best business boosting tool that I have ever come across.

If you want to increase your quality customer base and profits , you need to see this now ! How to sell a service on the net, Build your local business with site build it.

For a quick guide to laundry labels I have produced a simple page guide, which can be found on the link below.

Bring us your questions and stories for our web site readers who are desparate for all the information they can get.

You can even load up your own pictures and illustrations and see the final web page straight away, simple to use form, which helps you as you go along.

Do You have a super tip or story about laundry that you would like to share?

Do you have a great tip on any laundry or dish-washing subject?

Share it, with the visitors to these pages, many are desperate for answers to their questions NOW.

Your story or tip will be tweeted on
twitter.com/laundryinfo within hours of publication to be seen by millions more people world wide! cheep! cheep! twitter.com/laundryinfo