Machine wash, 60°C
The item can be washed in water up to 60°C (140°F) on a normal cycle.
How to read it
The number in the washtub is the highest water temperature allowed, in degrees Celsius, and the tub symbol covers washing by machine and by hand. No bar under the tub means the normal cycle. GINETEX lists it for coloured articles that can't be washed at boiling temperature.
Where a garment's own label or its manufacturer says otherwise, that takes precedence.
Differences by country or standard
The Canadian government's guide, based on the Canadian care labelling standard, marks water temperature with dots in the tub instead of a number: one dot for 30°C, two for 40°C, four for 60°C. The temperature limits are the same.
In Australia the mandatory care labelling standard allows the instructions to be given in English words, as the five international symbols, or both.
Where the care symbols came from
The symbols were devised in Europe. GINETEX, the international association for textile care labelling, was founded in Paris on 26 March 1963 by the Benelux countries, the Federal Republic of Germany, France and Switzerland, after symposiums on care labelling in the late 1950s. As trade became more international, it says, care information in words was no longer enough, and symbols avoided the problem of different languages. Until the mid-1950s, according to GINETEX, two washing programmes were enough: 95°C for boiling and 60°C for dyed fabrics that weren't colourfast. GINETEX agreed in 1987 to let ISO use its symbols, which led to the first ISO standard for them in 1991.
Read next
- Next in Laundry symbolsMachine wash, 40°C, mildThe item can be washed in water up to 40°C (104°F) on a mild cycle.
- The same shape in Accessibility symbolsAudio description symbol (AD)AD stands for audio description: a narrator describes what is happening on screen or on stage in the pauses between the dialogue, for people who are blind or have low vision.
More laundry symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves or letters and numbers.
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. 4
- Guide to Apparel and Textile Care Symbols, CAN/CGSB-86.1-2003, Office of Consumer Affairs, Government of Canada, p. 2
- Fifty Years of Care Labelling Symbols Since 1963, GINETEX, the International Association for Textile Care Labelling
- Care labelling for clothing and textiles mandatory standard, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC Product Safety)
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 24, 2026. How we research
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