What do the washing symbols on care labels mean?
At VAUDE, we do our best to produce your product as sustainably as possible. Then we put it in your hands: the better you take care of it, the longer you can use it; the longer you use it, the fewer resources are consumed. Washing, and therefore the care label with the washing symbols, is an important part of this.
Top 6 general sustainable washing tips
Even more important in terms of sustainability, however, are general washing tips. We have summarized the most important 6 for you here:
- Wash as often as necessary - but as seldom as possible, or even airing is sufficient
- 30 degrees is usually enough - by using low temperatures, you can save energy
- Normally you can do without the prewash
- Fill the drum
- treat yourself to an environmentally friendly detergent and use it sparingly
- Air dry the laundry, this saves energy and the laundry smells wonderfully fresh afterwards
Washing symbols explained in brief
Most of the time, the first symbol on the care label resembles a tub. It indicates the temperature at which you can wash the clothes.
In the second place there is a triangle. This indicates whether you can bleach the garment. Generally, this only applies to white clothing.
The circle in the square is based on a dryer. Accordingly, the symbol gives you an indication of whether and under what conditions the clothing may be put in the dryer.
This care symbol is unambiguous: it indicates whether and on which level you may iron the garment.
The circle stands for dry cleaning.
The additional symbols complete the washing symbols
Only with these additional symbols do the washing symbols on the care label make clear sense.
The various temperature indications (30, 40, 60 and 95 degrees) are found exclusively in the "tub", the wash symbol. Logically, they indicate the maximum washing temperature - but lower is always possible. We recommend 30 degrees for most products.
You will find the lines next to the symbols for washing, the "tub", and for dry cleaning, the circle. The more dashes, the more gently the garment should be treated. In concrete terms, this meant, for example, putting it in the washing machine with less other laundry. Two dashes mean gentle treatment, such as wool wash or gentle wash (drum only 1/3 full of laundry, increased water level, greatly reduced agitation, wool spin or no spin at all).
Up to three dots can be at the dryer (low, medium and high temperature) or iron symbol (110, 150 and 200 degrees). The more there are, the more heat the product can withstand. No dot means: extremely easy to care for.
The cross is self-explanatory: if it is on a symbol, you must not expose the garment to this treatment under any circumstances. For example, do not iron, bleach, dry clean or tumble dry.
