Tips & tricks how to best treat your clothes.

Explore these tips:

• How to prevent lint and pilling on delicate wool fabrics?
• Wash inside out or not?
• Why do you need a mesh laundry bag?
• How to remove red wine stains?
• How to wash silk and wool correctly?
• How to wash sportswear correctly?

Functional fabrics such as GORE-TEX®, eVent® and Sympatex® that are made from membrane materials are in fact not actually fabrics, but microporous film on a fabric substrate. “Microporous” means that water vapour can pass through, but not water droplets. This makes these materials waterproof and breathable, but also necessitates a specific care routine.

To protect the membranes and retain their particular properties, you should regularly treat them with a waterproofing product. You can do this quite easily using the Outdoor/Waterproofing program on your Siemens washing machine. This gently washes high-quality functional fabrics and restores their water-repellant performance by means of optimised temperatures, a specific pattern of drum movements and a wash-in waterproofing product that you add to the machine.

You should always wash these materials with a specially designed detergent for waterproof clothing. Never use fabric softener! Fabric softener instantly blocks the membrane's fine pores upon contact, ruining the material's special properties.

When washing and drying membrane materials, avoid high spin speeds and temperatures above 40°C. Siemens' Outdoor washing and Outdoor drying programs are ideal for this.

Modern microfibre sportswear has the advantage over sportswear made from conventional synthetic fibres: It wicks away and expels moisture quickly without it accumulating on the fibres. As a result, both the fabric and the sportsperson remain dry.

• Synthetics

Synthetic materials absorb less water and therefore less dirt into the weave of the fabric than natural fibres. This makes them very easy to care for. Nevertheless, they should not be subjected to temperatures above 40°C or high spin speeds as these may cause the material to deform. The Siemens' super15 program is ideal for this.

• Microfibres

Modern microfibres are essentially cared for in the same way as all synthetic materials. However, you must avoid adding fabric softener because this causes the fine gaps between the fibres to close up, meaning that the woven fabric can no longer wick away any moisture.

• Fleece

Warm, soft and water-repellant – fleece is the perfect choice for the coldest time of year. And it is also very easy to care for. You can wash your fleece garments easily in the washing machine at 30 to 40°C – lightly soiled items take just 15 minutes using the Siemens super15 program. A gentle spin is sufficient and helps retain the extremely soft, fluffy surface texture of the fleece material. It is best to use a mild liquid detergent to wash fleece.

Unlike other functional fabrics, it is recommended that you use a little fabric softener every fifth time you wash fleece garments. This restores the material's softness.

• Merino wool

The natural texture of this incredibly high-quality wool is much finer than conventional wool. This makes it very elastic and less voluminous, which makes it ideal for wearing next to the skin, e.g. as a base layer for winter sports. Caring for merino wool is not very different from caring for other types of wool.

The Delicate or even the Easy-care program can be used to provide the special care needed for merino wool sportswear. Proceed in accordance with the care label provided by the clothing manufacturer.

You can even dry delicate wool fabrics in the tumble dryer if you use the Siemens wool basket. This is kinder to your wool fabrics, allowing them to be dried without being damaged by the mechanical movements of the drum.

• Cotton

From a simple T-shirt to a large sauna towel, cotton is fantastically easy to care for and is an obvious choice for sport.

It is important to remember to take your dirty laundry out of your sports bag as soon as you get home, otherwise unpleasant odours can develop due to the moisture, and these can linger in the woven cotton fabric.

There are also a few points to note when you wash these items:

• T-shirts and workout gear

A quick wash at 30°C is sufficient for sweaty and lightly soiled T-shirts and cotton workout gear such as hoodies. The Siemens' super15 washing program is ideal for this and takes just 15 minutes.

• Hand towels and bath towels

It is best to wash hand towels, bath towels and sauna towels at 60°C to ensure that they are properly clean and fresh again. Do not use fabric softener, as this renders the cotton less effective at drying skin.