What do the ironing symbols on your clothes mean?

When you see an iron with a cross, you shouldn't iron your laundry. Even at a low temperature. You'll mostly find this symbol on leather, suede, plastic, or rubber clothes, for example. Follow the advice well, or you'll melt your laundry and have to throw it out. You don't want to do that, of course.

A symbol of an iron with 1 dot means that you can iron the laundry at a low temperature. That's why you should use the lowest setting of your iron. You can recognize it by the 1 dot on the dial of the iron. With this, you always iron at a maximum temperature of 110°C. That way, you can protect your synthetic laundry and prevent it from melting. That's nice and safe when your Christmas dress or pants are made from polyester or acrylic fibers.

With a symbol of an iron with 2 dots, you can turn your iron to the setting with 2 dots. With this, you can iron cotton laundry at a medium-high temperature. You can do this for a T-shirt or dress shirt that have 2 dots on the laundry label. That way, you can get the wrinkles out well but won't iron too hot. You can protect your clothes this way.

If there's an iron with 3 dots on the laundry label, you can iron your laundry at a high temperature. You can set the iron to the setting with 3 dots. That way, you can get stubborn wrinkles out better and your linen tablecloth will be entirely smooth for Christmas.

An iron with a steam cloud and a cross means: don't use steam while you iron. Don't do this and protect your clothes. This prevents them from shrinking or melting.

There are washing machines that reduce wrinkles with steam. That's useful when you have wrinkled dress shirts of shirts, for example. That way, you can add steam after washing and be done with ironing faster. Not all washing machines have this function. That's why you should carefully check the product filter and the product page.