Machine wash, 30°C, very mild
The item can be washed in water up to 30°C (86°F) on a very mild cycle.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Two bars under the washtub ask for a very mild wash with much less mechanical action, such as a wool wash cycle. The number is the highest water temperature allowed, in degrees Celsius. One bar means a mild cycle, and no bar the normal one.
Also searched as: delicates, wool wash.
Where a garment's own label or its manufacturer says otherwise, that takes precedence.
Differences by country or standard
The international guide from GINETEX, the body behind the care symbols, names the settings by how gentle they are: one bar is a mild process and two bars a very mild process. The Canadian government's guide names the same settings after washing-machine cycles: one bar is permanent press and two bars delicate or gentle.
A detail few people notice
In a survey of 6,000 people in six European countries, carried out by IPSOS for GINETEX in December 2016, only one in four people noticed the bars under the care symbols. The dots in the ironing and tumble-drying symbols were noticed by about half (54%).
Read next
- Next in Laundry symbolsHand washThe item can be washed by hand, in water up to 40°C (104°F).
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of IranIran’s flag has three equal stripes of green, white and red, with the national emblem in red in the centre and the words “Allahu akbar” (“God is greatest”) written 22 times in white along the edges of the green and the red. Iran’s constitution names the colours, the emblem and the motto but gives them no meaning; the art historian Kimia Maleki writes that the 22 marks the day the revolution of 1979 won, the 22nd day of the 11th month of the Iranian calendar.
More laundry symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves, letters and numbers or lines.
Sources
- Textiles — Care labelling code using symbols, ISO 3758, ISO, Abstract (ISO 3758:2023)
- Standard Guide for Care Symbols for Care Instructions on Textile Products, ASTM D5489, ASTM International, section 4.6 (ASTM D5489-25)
- Textile Care Symbols, GINETEX, the International Association for Textile Care Labelling, p. 5
- Guide to Apparel and Textile Care Symbols, CAN/CGSB-86.1-2003, Office of Consumer Affairs, Government of Canada, p. 2
- A barometer for textile care labelling in Europe, IPSOS study for GINETEX, December 2016, GINETEX, the International Association for Textile Care Labelling
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 24, 2026. How we research
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