A complete guide on how to wash what you own. Fabric care, temperature, spin speed, and dryer heat—done right.
Not all fabrics are built the same, and the way you wash them should reflect that. Treating every load the same is one of the most common ways people unknowingly wear out their clothes ahead of schedule.
The way you wash something should reflect what it’s made of. A single set of default settings — same temperature, same cycle, same spin — works well for some fabrics and slowly destroys others.
Delicates: Silk, Lace, Wool, Cashmere
Delicates like silk, lace, and wool are fragile by nature because their fibres are fine, loosely structured, and highly sensitive to heat and friction. These fabrics need cold water, a gentle or hand-wash cycle, and a mild enzyme-free detergent. Enzyme-free means the detergent contains no biological cleaning agents —most standard detergents use enzymes to break down stains, which works well on everyday fabrics but gradually degrades the protein-based fibres found in silk and wool.
Always air dry delicates and lay them flat, hanging them while wet causes the fibres to stretch under their own weight, distorting the shape permanently. Washing them inside a mesh laundry bag adds another layer of protection by preventing the fabric from snagging or tangling with other items in the drum. On most machines, the right setting for delicates is the Delicate or Hand Wash cycle.
Wool and cashmere are also sensitive to friction in a specific way — rubbing wool fibres together causes them to mat and felt. Matting is when fibres tangle and compress; felting is the next stage, where those tangled fibres lock together permanently, shrinking and stiffening the fabric into a dense, irreversible texture. You may have pulled a wool sweater out of a hot wash and found it half its original size — that’s felting. Wash wool items alone or protected from rougher fabrics, avoid wringing, and keep heat entirely out of the equation.
Synthetics: Polyester, Nylon, Spandex
Synthetic materials like polyester, nylon, and spandex are made from plastic-based fibres rather than natural sources. They are engineered to release stains and odours relatively easily, which makes them lower maintenance in some ways. The trade-off is that synthetics are highly vulnerable to heat. High temperatures cause synthetic fibres to warp, pill, and lose their shape.
Wash synthetics on cold or cool using a Permanent Press or Synthetics cycle if your machine has one, and dry them on low heat for a shorter time than you would cotton. The drum doesn’t need long, synthetics dry fast, and overdoing it causes permanent damage.
Activewear and Performance Fabrics
Activewear deserves a specific note: avoid fabric softener entirely when washing moisture-wicking materials. Moisture-wicking fabrics are performance textiles—typically synthetic—designed with a fine porous structure that pulls sweat away from the skin and allows it to evaporate. Microfibre is a very fine synthetic fabric used in both activewear and cleaning cloths, with extremely small fibres that make it highly absorbent and soft.
Water-repellent materials are fabrics treated with a coating that causes water to bead and roll off the surface rather than soaking in — common in rainwear and outdoor gear. Fabric softener works by coating fibres, which feels pleasant on cotton but clogs the microscopic pores in all three of these fabric types. If available, use the Active Wear or Sports cycle on your machine, which is designed to clean performance fabrics without degrading them.
Cotton
Cotton holds onto dirt and body oils, meaning it requires longer cycles. Cotton can handle tumble drying, but air drying is still recommended where possible—it’s gentler on the fabric over time and reduces the risk of shrinkage. Use the Cotton or Normal cycle on most laundry machines.
To prevent dark colours from bleeding and fading, wash them cold using a Delicate or Colours cycle to minimize friction between fabrics, and turn garments inside out before they go in. Air dry dark items where possible, dryer heat accelerates dye fading over time.
Water Temperature: What Each Setting Does to Your Clothes
Water temperature is one of the most consequential choices you make each load, and most people default to warm out of habit without thinking about what it’s doing. Hot water is the most effective at activating detergent, melting body oils from fabric, and killing bacteria.
Hot water is for heavily soiled items, bed sheets, and towels, as it does a thorough job that cooler temperature water cannot match. The downside is that hot water is also hard on fabric. It shrinks natural fibres like cotton and wool, causes dyes to bleed, and fades colours over time. Reserve hot water for loads that need it (whites, bedding, heavily soiled work clothes) and keep it away from anything with colour or structure you want to preserve.
Warm-cool water is the middle ground. It’s effective enough to dissolve detergent and lift everyday dirt without being aggressive on fabric. It’s the right default for most everyday clothing and synthetic fabrics. The limitation is that warm water won’t tackle tough stains as effectively as hot, and it won’t sanitize the way hot water does — so for loads where that matters, it falls short.
Cold water is the gentlest option and the right choice for dark colours, delicates, and anything you’re concerned about shrinking. Cold water prevents dyes from bleeding, stops fibres from contracting, and is significantly more energy efficient since the majority of the energy a washing machine uses goes toward heating the water, so washing cold is one of the easiest ways to reduce operating cost. The trade-off is that standard detergents are less effective in cold water. Cold-water optimized detergents address this directly and are worth using if cold washing is your default. Some newer machines also solve this with a smart cold-wash feature. LG’s ColdWash technology, available on models like the WM5800HVA and WM6700HBA, uses a small amount of warm water at the very start of the cycle to activate the detergent, then completes the rest of the cycle in cold water, you get the cleaning performance of warm with the fabric protection and energy savings of cold.
Dryer Heat Settings and When to Use Them
The dryer is where a lot of clothing damage happens — not from bad intentions, but from defaulting to high heat on everything.
High heat is best for thick, durable fabrics that hold a lot of moisture: cotton towels, denim jeans, blankets, and white bedding. These items need the heat to dry properly in a reasonable amount of time, and their construction can handle it. The risk with high heat is shrinkage — cotton in particular will continue to shrink incrementally with repeated high-heat drying, which is why clothes that fit perfectly when you bought them can feel shorter or tighter after a year of regular use.
Medium heat is the workhorse setting for most households as its best for everyday garments like t-shirts, synthetic blends, and dress shirts. It dries efficiently without the shrinkage risk of high heat, and for most loads it’s the right default.
Low heat is for activewear, knit sweaters, and baby clothes, or anything that warps, shrinks, or loses its shape easily. Low heat takes longer, but it’s the only safe option for these fabrics in the dryer. Some premium dryers also offer a steam refresh cycle—a useful option for lightly worn activewear that just needs freshening rather than a full wash and dry. For anything the care label flags as heat-sensitive, skip the dryer entirely and air dry. A drying rack or clothesline costs nothing to run and adds real longevity to heat-sensitive garments.
Spin Speed and What It Means for Your Laundry
Spin speed is measured in RPM (revolutions per minute) and on modern machines typically ranges from around 400 to 1,600 RPM. It’s a specification people see when shopping for washers but rarely understand, which means it often gets overlooked despite having a real impact on how your laundry comes out. The job of the spin cycle is to extract water from your clothes before they go into the dryer. A higher spin speed extracts more water, which means shorter drying time and less energy used overall. A lower spin speed leaves clothes wetter because the drum is spinning more gently, which puts less mechanical stress on the fabric — and for certain materials that trade-off is worth it.
For towels, denim, and cotton, a high spin is ideal for this dense fabrics that absorb a lot of water. Getting as much water out as possible before the dryer cycle means less time and heat needed to finish the job.
For delicates and wool, a low spin is essential. High RPM can stretch, warp, or damage fine fibres, and the extra water left in the fabric is a worthwhile trade-off for keeping the garment intact. One practical downside of high spin speeds: wrinkling. The faster the drum spins, the more clothes are pressed against each other and the drum wall, setting creases into the fabric.
For dress shirts or anything you’d normally iron, a lower spin speed reduces how much work you’re creating for yourself afterward. Many machines have a dedicated reduced spin or easy iron setting for exactly this reason.
Front-load washers generally spin faster than top-loaders and extract water more efficiently, which is one of the reasons they tend to be more energy efficient overall. Some machines also offer a standalone extra spin or spin-only cycle, which is useful if a load comes out of the wash still noticeably heavy with water and you want to run an additional extraction before the dryer without running a full cycle again.
The right machine makes all of this easier — cycles designed for specific fabric types, load-sensing technology, and steam functions that handle what standard cycles can’t. If you’re unsure whether your current machine is working as hard as it should be, our team is happy to walk you through what’s available.