What Does The W Symbol On Your Care Label Mean?

In short. A circled W means the garment should be professionally wet cleaned — washed in water by a trained cleaner on machinery built for it. It is not an instruction to put the item through your machine at home.

The symbol

On the care label, professional cleaning instructions appear as letters inside a circle. The letter tells the cleaner which process the manufacturer has approved:

W in a circleProfessional wet cleaning, normal program.

W with one barWet clean, gentle. Reduced mechanical action.

W with two barsWet clean, very gentle. Minimum action, low temperature.

W crossed outDo not wet clean.

P in a circleDry clean in tetrachloroethylene (perc) and all the solvents listed for F.

F in a circleDry clean in hydrocarbon solvent only. Perc is excluded as too aggressive.

Circle crossed outDo not dry clean. Solvent is ruled out — but water may not be.

Bars underneath the circle mean the process has to be gentler than normal. One bar means gentle; two bars means very gentle. A professional cleaner reads those bars as instructions about water level, mechanical action, temperature and drying, and sets the machine accordingly.

Why you might not see any symbols at all

In Australia, care labelling is governed by the Consumer Goods (Care Labelling) Information Standard 2023, which draws on AS/NZS 1957:1998 and the international symbol code ISO 3758:2012. The standard requires adequate care instructions, but it lets a supplier give them as words in English, as the international symbols, or as both.

That is why two garments on the same rack can be labelled completely differently. If yours carries words rather than symbols, look for the phrase “professionally wet clean” — it means the same thing as the circled W.

“Do not dry clean” does not mean “cannot be cleaned”

This is the confusion that costs people garments. A crossed-out dry cleaning symbol rules out solvent. It says nothing about water.

Plenty of items carry both a crossed-out dry cleaning symbol and a circled W: beaded and sequinned pieces, garments with heat transfers or printed motifs, some coated fabrics, and anything with trims or adhesives that solvent would soften or lift. Those garments are not delicate beyond saving. They are asking for a different process.

Is it the same as washing it at home?

No, and the distinction is the whole point of the symbol. Professional wet cleaning uses detergents formulated for fibre and colour protection, machines that control water level, mechanical action, temperature and cycle time to a program set for that garment class, and drying that stops at a measured residual moisture level instead of running the item bone dry. The finishing is then done by hand on tensioning equipment — a form finisher for jackets, a topper for trousers, a pressing table for the rest.

A domestic machine has none of that control, and a domestic dryer has no idea when to stop. Wool, silk and tailoring are exactly the fibres that punish the difference.

What to do with a W-labelled garment

Take it to a cleaner who actually offers the process. Not every dry cleaner does — wet cleaning needs its own chemistry, programs and finishing equipment, and a shop without them will either decline the item or clean it another way.

Find a wet cleaner near you — these cleaners run the LANADOL system.

If you run a cleaning business and offer wet cleaning, tell us and we will add you to that list. Listing is free.