Always wash hand wash garments in cold water or on a delicate cycle. Cold water is less likely to shrink your clothing or alter the colors. The delicate cycle offers less agitation, even in machines with a central agitator. ... It's the safest way to dry them and will help you hold onto those pieces of clothing for longer.

Is the delicate cycle the same as hand-wash?

A delicate wash cycle is the machine equivalent to handwashing, this cycle uses warm or cold water with low or no spin. It's the shortest and most gentle cleaning cycle. If the machine defaults to warm water, we recommend you override this by selecting cold water.

What does it mean when it says hand-wash only?

What do hand-wash only labels really mean? Some manufacturers put hand-wash only labels on clothes because they haven't tested them in the washing machine. This is to cover themselves, so that if you do machine-wash something and it gets damaged, you can't blame them.