It’s the button most people reach for without thinking. The name sounds careful, the cycle is short, and it feels like the safe middle ground between a heavy wash and a delicate one. Across Europe, appliance experts have been warning that this is exactly the problem: the program millions of people use by default was designed for a narrow group of clothes, and used on everything else, it either leaves laundry less clean or isn’t as gentle as people think.
The program is the one labeled Easy Care in Europe, and Permanent Press, Perm Press or Wrinkle Control on most American machines. It’s on almost every washer sold, and it’s one of the most used settings in the house, largely because of what its name suggests.
What the cycle was actually built for
Permanent press dates back to the 1950s, when “wash-and-wear” clothing arrived: cotton treated with finishes to resist wrinkles, and new synthetic fibers like polyester. Those fabrics needed their own cycle, and manufacturers added one.
It works differently from the normal cycle in three ways. The wash uses warm water followed by a cool rinse, which relaxes fibers and releases wrinkles. The agitation is gentler. And the spin is slower, so clothes aren’t pressed into hard creases by the drum. On most machines it runs about 30 minutes, roughly half the length of a normal wash.
That makes it ideal for a specific pile: dress shirts, poly-cotton blends, synthetic knits, polyester and rayon, and anything that comes out of the wash looking crumpled.
Mistake one: using it for everything
The problem starts when that cycle becomes the default for the whole laundry basket. Towels, sheets, jeans and everyday cotton T-shirts need the opposite of what permanent press offers. The normal cycle, sometimes labeled Cotton, runs longer and hotter, with more agitation and a faster spin, and that’s what lifts body oils and grime out of thick cotton.
Wash a load of towels on permanent press week after week and the reduced agitation doesn’t fully dislodge what’s embedded in the fibers. That’s one reason towels start to smell musty sooner than they should. Appliance experts in Germany, where the warning went viral, give the same advice: pure cotton belongs on the cotton program.
Mistake two: thinking it’s the gentlest option
The other misunderstanding runs the other way. Because the name sounds soft, many people use permanent press for their most fragile things. It isn’t the gentlest setting on the machine. For lingerie, lace, silk and fine knitwear, the delicate or hand-wash cycle, with lower temperatures and even less movement, is the right choice. Wool and cashmere in particular can felt with warm water and movement.
A cleaning professional interviewed by Apartment Therapy sums up the logic in one line: permanent press is for man-made fibers, blends and wrinkle-prone clothes; cotton goes on the cotton cycle, delicates on delicate.
How to sort the basket in ten seconds
- Normal or Cotton: towels, sheets, jeans, cotton T-shirts, kitchen linens.
- Permanent Press: dress shirts, blouses, poly-cotton blends, synthetic knits, anything labeled wrinkle-resistant.
- Delicate or Hand Wash: lingerie, lace, silk, fine knits and wool.
One more habit makes permanent press work as intended: take clothes out as soon as the cycle ends. Left in the drum, even the best wrinkle-release rinse is undone. Getting the cycle right also helps with the small holes that appear in T-shirts, since thin knits last longer on gentler settings, and the setting you almost never use may be the one your wardrobe needs.
The button isn’t bad. It just isn’t the answer for every load. That’s the trick.
