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Three numbers run the whole wash: 60 °C, 30-40 °C and a hard 30 °C ceiling — plus one stain rule that overrides them all.
The ladder is short. Whites and cotton workwear wash at 60 °C, the temperature at which heavy soil and body oils release properly. Coloured cotton drops to 30-40 °C to protect dye. Wool and silk sit under a hard ceiling: never above 30 °C, because heat plus agitation is what damages these fibres.
The protein rule overrides the ladder. Blood, milk and egg are protein stains, and protein coagulates above roughly 30 °C — the same chemistry that sets an egg in a pan. Once cooked in, the stain is permanent. The fix is sequence: flush or soak the stain cold first, then keep the whole wash at 30 °C or below, whatever the fabric's usual setting.
Dosing scales with weight, not with drum size alone. Standard dosing is about 35-50 g of detergent per kilogram of dry laundry — roughly 110 ml of liquid for a 6 kg drum. Hard-water areas push the dose upward, because some of the detergent is spent neutralising minerals before it can clean.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Chemistry is the second half of the setting. Everyday laundry detergents are alkaline, at pH 9-11, which cotton tolerates well. Wool and silk do not: they need a neutral to slightly acidic cleaner at pH 5-7, or the fibre itself is damaged even at the right temperature.
Shrinkage has two distinct mechanisms. Wool felts — warm agitation mats the fibres irreversibly, taking 5-10% off the garment's dimensions. Cotton simply relaxes: its first hot wash carries a 3-5% shrinkage allowance, after which the size settles. Knowing which mechanism applies tells you whether a hot wash is a lasting risk or a one-time adjustment.
When the temperature ceiling and the pH rule both point away from water — delicate wool, silk, structured pieces — the decision moves to method, not settings; the dry-cleaning-vs-washing page takes it from there. For load sizes and minimum orders, see the wash-and-fold turnaround page.
Further reading