ARTICLE ·
Wash with care: how workwear lasts longer
By Vasilis
A uniform is washed far more often than any other garment: in a hotel, the housekeeping tunic and the kitchen jacket go into the machine almost every day. How long they last, with their shape and colour, depends less on the fabric and more on how you wash them. ID Identity, which Endyma Ikos represents exclusively in Greece, has gathered its experience into a care guide. We have adapted it for hotel uniforms and for every team that washes its clothes often.
The care label is your best friend
Before every wash, look at the care label, usually on the inside of the garment. There the manufacturer tells you, in symbols, how to wash, dry and iron the garment so that it keeps its quality and its lifespan. When a housekeeping team or a kitchen takes delivery of new uniforms, it is worth photographing the label and sticking it on the machine: that way the rule holds for every shift, not only for whoever happened to read the garment.
The washing symbols, in plain words
The tub with a number gives the maximum washing temperature. ID uses four steps:
- 30 °C and 40 °C: depending on the lines under the tub, an extra-delicate programme (under 1,000 rpm), a delicate one (800 to 1,000 rpm) or a normal one (over 1,000 rpm).
- 60 °C and 80 °C: a normal programme, over 1,000 rpm. This is where kitchen and housekeeping garments belong.
- A hand in the tub: hand wash, up to 40 °C.
The triangle is about bleaching. A crossed-out triangle means detergent without bleach, and that applies to most coloured workwear.
The square with a circle is the tumble dryer: one dot for low heat (up to 60 °C), two for high (up to 80 °C), crossed out for garments that do not go in the dryer. The square with a line means line drying or drying flat. And a detail that is often forgotten: coloured garments dried outdoors want shade, because the sun fades the colour.
The iron with dots gives the ironing temperature: one dot up to 100 °C, two up to 150 °C, three up to 200 °C. The circle is about dry cleaning and the solvents allowed; a crossed-out circle means the garment does not go to the dry cleaner, and that solvent stain removers should be avoided too.
Industrial laundering: not every laundry is the same
Hotels that send their garments to an industrial laundry often see differences from batch to batch. ID's experience is that routines and methods vary a great deal between laundries, and that shows in shrinkage and in colour. That is why every product goes through a strict quality check according to its quality manual, and the tolerances are known in advance: shrinkage of up to roughly ±5 to 7% on sweatshirts and ±5% on everything else, or up to ±1.5 cm in the measurements. If your team launders industrially, tell us before you order: we tell you which garments are tested for it, such as the PRO Wear range, which washes at 80 °C for whites and 60 °C for colours.
Why care is also an environmental choice
ID studied the life cycle of its T-shirts with the organisation Tekstilrevolutionen. The conclusion is simple: the best way to reduce a garment's environmental footprint is to look after it and wear it for as long as possible. A quality garment lasts longer, and it lasts longer still when it is washed properly. The certifications that come with its collections, EU Ecolabel, OEKO-TEX®, Better Cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell fibres, concern the production; the lifespan, though, is decided in your laundry.
What this means for your hotel
In practice, three rules cover most of it:
- Wash kitchen and housekeeping garments at the label's temperature, usually 60 °C, and not hotter "to be safe".
- Dry colours in the shade or in the dryer on low heat, so the team stays in the same colour all season.
- Keep the care labels together with the garments' product codes. When you hire someone in July, you reorder the same garment in the same colour, and you wash it the same way.
Every garment you source from Endyma Ikos comes with its manufacturer's care instructions. If you are unsure about a particular fabric or about your laundry, ask us before the first wash.
Source: ID Identity, Wash with care.