Temperature limits (minimum and maximum °C)
The maker’s stated temperature limits for the item: the highest it should meet and, where given, the lowest. Whirlpool describes the two-temperature version as ‘the highest and lowest temperatures a piece of tableware can withstand’.
Market convention
This symbol is a market convention: no law or public standard defines the drawing, so each maker draws its own and the meaning is whatever that maker says it is. This page follows 3 makers’ and retailers’ own keys.
- What it looks like
- A thermometer, or a box, with one or two temperatures printed beside it in °C and often °F — for example a maximum on top and a minimum below.
- Other names
- max temperature symbol; min max temperature symbol; thermometer symbol; heat resistant to …°C
What it does not promise
A temperature limit is not an oven, microwave or dishwasher mark. A plastic box rated to +100 °C is not thereby fit for an oven set to 100 °C unless the maker says so, and the figure does not cover sudden changes of temperature or the lid unless the maker says it does.
Where makers differ
Nordic Houseware Group draws a thermometer with +100 °C / +212 °F above and −20 °C / −4 °F below, meaning the box ‘can be used and stored’ in that range. Mepal prints a box reading ‘max’ with one figure in °C and °F, and says it has ‘several versions of this icon’ because ‘Not all of our products are heat resistant’. Whirlpool shows a min-and-max icon with two temperatures.
Often confused with
The maker says the item may go in an oven. A temperature in the drawing is the highest oven setting the maker allows for it.
More freezer and temperature symbols
Sources
No law defines this symbol, so the meaning is taken from makers’ and retailers’ own pages. Those marked as showing the icon draw or describe it; the others add conditions. Each was fetched and read on the date shown:
- Nordic Houseware Group : Understanding Symbols — Shows a thermometer with +100°C/+212°F and -20°C/-4°F: ‘Stored in -20 to +100 degrees — The product can be used and stored in temperatures from -20 degrees up to +100 degrees.’ Checked 2026-09-24.
- Mepal : What do the symbols and specifications on a product mean? — ‘These icons tell you the maximum safe temperature that your product can withstand … in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Not all of our products are heat resistant, so we have several versions of this icon.’ The example shown is a rounded box reading ‘max 70°C 158°F’. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Whirlpool : Dishwasher Safe & Other Tableware Symbols — Shows a ‘Minimum and maximum temperature’ icon: ‘This symbol uses two temperatures to indicate the highest and lowest temperatures a piece of tableware can withstand.’ Checked 2026-09-24.
Written in our own words; quotations are the sources’ wording.