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Laundry & fabric care

Fabric care, where the label on the garment outranks anything general that can be said about the fibre — and where the same wash that is routine for cotton felts wool permanently.

Start with the label, not the fibre

The body that devised the care-labelling system states that the symbols indicate the maximum severityof treatment the article can withstand without irreversible damage — and that underlabelling is to be avoided. So a label is a specification for that made-up garment, its dyes, finishes, interlinings and trims included, and any of those may be a tighter constraint than the fibre it is mostly made from. A wool jacket can be dry-clean-only because of its interfacing.

What each care symbol means

Then the fibre

Four fibres, chosen because they behave differently rather than because they are the four most common. Cotton tolerates what destroys wool; polyester is the inverse of wool almost point for point.

  • Cotton

    A cellulose fibre, tolerant of hot water and alkaline detergents — and measurably degraded by chlorine bleach, which cuts the cellulose chains themselves.

  • Wool

    A protein fibre. The wool industry body advises against bleach of any kind and against enzyme detergents, and heat with agitation felts it irreversibly.

  • Polyester

    A synthetic fibre that resists the chemistry which degrades cotton and wool, and is instead limited by heat — and it holds oily soil more stubbornly than either.

  • SilkProvisional

    A protein fibre like wool, and subject to the same alkali, enzyme and bleach restrictions — but CleaningHQ has not verified a silk-specific authority.

The bleach question comes before the temperature question

Getting the temperature wrong is usually survivable. Getting bleach wrong on a protein fibre is not. The wool industry body advises against bleach on wool in bothits chlorine and oxygen forms — which is wider than most people assume, because oxygen bleach is widely believed to be the gentle alternative. On cotton the problem is different and cumulative: a peer-reviewed laundering study measured chlorine bleaching degrading the cellulose far faster than ordinary washing, invisibly, until the garment fails.

Why oxygen bleach is not the wool-safe bleach

What goes in the machine

  • Wool detergent

    A mild, near-neutral detergent without enzymes or bleach. What the wool industry body recommends, and what it recommends against is the more useful half.

  • Detergent

    A surfactant-based cleaner. The general-purpose answer for greasy and particulate soil, and the correct first choice far more often than any specialist product.

  • Sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach)

    An oxidising bleach that releases hydrogen peroxide in water. Gentler than chlorine bleach on fabrics and dyes, and it does not produce chlorine gas.

  • Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach)

    A powerful oxidising bleach and disinfectant. It is also the substance behind the most common serious household chemical accidents, and must never be mixed with anything.

Widely held beliefs, assessed

  • Oxygen bleach is the wool-safe bleach Does not work

    Widely believed, encouraged by colour-safe marketing, and contradicted by the wool industry body — which advises against oxygen bleach as firmly as chlorine.

  • Hotter washes clean better Disputed

    True of the chemistry and false as advice. Temperature is one of four variables, and it is the one most fabrics constrain hardest.

  • Dry-clean-only labels are just the manufacturer being cautious Does not work

    The body that devised the care-labelling system states the symbols mean the maximum severity the garment can take without irreversible damage. That is a specification, not caution.

Stains

  • Grease — Fats and oils, which water alone cannot lift. Removed by surfactants, by heat, by solvents, or by alkalis that convert the fat into soap.
  • Red wine — A pigment stain from anthocyanins and tannins. Responds to oxidising bleaches rather than to detergents, and gets much harder once dried or heated.

Stain records are organised by what the stain chemically is rather than by what spilled. Coffee, tea and red wine are the same class of polyphenolic pigment and respond to the same treatment, which is why one record reaches all three.