The machine wash symbol
A plain washtub is permission: machine washing is fine. The marks under it are the fine print.
Machine wash: Machine washing is fine — any normal cycle, and any temperature unless dots inside the tub say otherwise.
Machine wash, permanent press: Use the permanent press cycle — a normal wash with a cool-down rinse and slower spin.
Machine wash, gentle: Use the gentle or delicate cycle — slow agitation and a slow spin.
What the washtub looks like
The base symbol is a little tub with a wavy waterline across the top. On its own it means machine washing is fine on a normal cycle, at any temperature. Almost everything else in the wash family is this tub with something added: dots inside for temperature, bars underneath for cycle, a hand for hand washing, an X for none of the above.
One bar: permanent press
A single bar under the tub asks for the permanent press cycle. That cycle washes normally, then adds a cool-down rinse and a slower spin, so wrinkle-resistant fabrics come out cool and relaxed instead of hot and creased. It exists for exactly one reason: heat plus a hard spin sets creases into resin-finished cotton and synthetics, and ironing won’t fully undo them.
Machine panels don’t agree on the name — yours may say “casual,” “wrinkle control,” or “perm press.” They are the same cycle.
Two bars: gentle
Two bars under the tub ask for the gentle or delicate cycle: slow agitation, slow spin, less mechanical wear. This is the bar count brand charts argue about most — some read two bars as “delicate,” others print “very gentle” or reserve it for wool cycles. The FTC guidance reads it simply as the gentle cycle, and that is the reading here. Whatever your machine calls its gentlest normal-temperature cycle, that is the one two bars want.
If you ignore the bars
A permanent press garment on a fast cycle comes out creased in ways an iron only softens. A gentle-cycle garment on a normal cycle stretches at the seams and pills where the drum worked it. Neither failure shows up in one wash — both accumulate, which is why the bars are easy to disrespect for months and then hard to forgive.
Questions people actually ask
Is permanent press the same as the casual cycle?
Yes. “Permanent press,” “casual,” and “wrinkle control” are the same cycle under different machine-panel names: a normal wash with a cool-down rinse and a slower spin.
Related
Reading a whole tag, not one symbol? Tap everything you see into the decoder — it gives the careful combined plan.