I tested three best-selling products from each brand, and I have thoughts.
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A machine washable rug has an undeniable appeal. As a cat owner and toddler mom, I’m also a professional spot cleaner, and sometimes even the best carpet cleaner or stain remover doesn’t get the job done. A rug you can throw in your home washing machine and dryer is the perfect solution to an annoying problem: how to clean a rug without spending a ton or killing your back. Sending it out for cleaning is expensive. Getting a service to come to your house is nearly as pricey and not as thorough. Other traditional options—hose it down in the driveway (if you have one and are up to the task), hang it on a clothesline and beat it with a stick (ditto), or leave it out in the snow like this TikTok user—frankly stink. No wonder companies like Ruggable and Revival have taken off. If these brands have grabbed your attention the way they have mine, scroll on for my Ruggable vs. Revival machine washable rug guide.
I tested three products—a polyester area rug and two rugs in other popular textures—from each brand in my house, so I have an in-depth understanding of their look and feel, design quality, stain resistance, and durability. I also washed the rugs myself to find out exactly how easy that is to do. (Spoiler alert: It’s not quite as easy as I hoped for a large area rug from either brand.) In spite of that, I came out loving both, especially the fact that it cost me a grand total of $18.50 (not including my hard-earned labor) to wash two large, dirty area rugs. While I’d love to say that one brand is clearly better than the other, it really depends on your design style, what room you’re shopping for, what size you need, and how often you want to wash your rug, so I touched on all of these points in my review below. Use my insights to find the best machine washable rug from Ruggable and/or Revival for your home.
I called in two rugs from each brand for hands-on testing: a cotton one and a wool one from Revival, and a shag one and a tufted standard polyester one from Ruggable. I already had one polyester rug from each brand; they’d each been in use in my house for more than a year. These are the exact rugs I tested:
In addition to my own testing, I asked my fellow House Beautiful editors, many of whom own washable rugs from the two brands, about their experiences. I interviewed textile expert Jamie Woodridge, an associate professor at North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles who has a special expertise in textile design and weaving, for additional background and context. In addition to holding an MFA in textile design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Woodridge has analyzed machine washable rugs fabrics as part of her work for NC State’s extension lab. I spoke with design experts at each brand and sent them detailed questions. Finally, I washed the rugs myself to find out exactly how easy that is to do.
Washable rugs from the two companies come in three materials: synthetic polyester or poly blend, natural cotton (including recycled denim), or wool. Synthetic sounded inferior to me—I just had an inherent preference for natural fibers—but after speaking with Woodridge I learned there are more pros to synthetic rugs than I’d realized. I was concerned about chemicals used in making synthetic products, but Woodridge assured me that all rugs sold in the U.S. have to meet ASTM textile standards. Synthetic rugs are “fairly durable,” she added, and they’re actually more fire resistant than natural fibers since they melt instead of catching on fire. Ruggable’s are treated with a polyurethane water barrier to deflect spills and stains (and never with harmful treatments such as PFOAs and PFAs or flame retardants, Liza Garrison, director of product at Ruggable, told me). By comparison, natural fiber rugs can be of a finer quality and are naturally stain resistant, but they’re more flammable and not as colorfast.
The obvious con to polyester rugs is that they’re made of plastic, which many of us want to buy less of and which doesn’t biodegrade in a landfill the way natural fibers do. Neither Revival nor Ruggable offers a recycling program for its polyester-based rugs, though Revival does make its polyester rugs out of recycled materials. Both companies also make their washable rugs to order so excess isn’t sitting in a warehouse.
Revival offers machine washable rugs in three textures: recycled OEKO-TEX polyester, wool (50 New Zealand wool, 50 Indian wool), and 100 percent organic cotton (including recycled denim). The company is unique in offering large natural fiber rugs that are designed to be machine washable. I love the tight weave of the cotton rug; I tested it in my daughter’s bathroom and found that water droplets bead up on it rather than absorbing, making it very durable. It feels soft but sturdy underfoot, and doesn’t slide around.
I tested the wool one in my own bathroom. I can see some of the white backing through the colored pile, so I do wish that it were a bit thicker, but I understand that it can only be so thick and machine washable. My cat certainly thinks it’s plush enough; she’s been sleeping on it every night. I tested the polyester rug in my sunroom, where my toddler spends most of her time. I’ve spent a lot of time crawling around on it too and think it’s as soft as any of her stuffed animals—plus, in spite of being so light it never looked dirty.
Two other HB editors have and love Revival’s recycled polyester rugs. Deputy Managing Editor Olivia Hosken has the exact same color Stripe rug as I do. “I feel like it really punches above its weight in terms of the cost versus quality,” she says.
I love the texture of Ruggable’s new tufted standard pile rug. It is sink-in plush and extremely satisfying to touch, yet it crumples up easily to go in the washer, almost like a throw blanket. (The rug pad gives it the heft it needs to stay put on the floor.) I tested the shag rug, which Ruggable says is its second most popular texture after tufted standard pile, in my daughter’s nursery. I don’t like shag rugs as a rule and didn’t expect to like this one. But it’s soft as a cloud, and she’s obsessed with it. In fact, the first night I rolled it out, she ran naked out of her bath across it, yelling, “Wow!,” and threw herself down on it. How could I not love it?
Several of my colleagues also own Ruggable rugs. Their reports: polyester (“fine” from three people), faux hide (“love” and “very easy to clean”), faux jute (“hated it”). “I chose a thin Gray Malin Llama Dot rug for my office and Jonathan Adler’s Inkdrop pattern for my husband’s office. The thinness isn’t something I would pick for a living room, but for an office it is great,” Hosken says.
Revival has better textures across the board, but the best Ruggable options are just as nice.
While working on this story, I gained a new appreciation for dark, ornate vintage rugs. I don’t have one, but now I can see how good they are at hiding stains. (If you can’t see a stain, does it matter that it’s there?) As Woodridge points out, “the way we live with rugs is different than it used to be.” We want homes with light-colored interiors, rugs included, and we want everything to look spotless even if we have indoor pets or kids running around. Washable rugs make that (somewhat) more attainable. These two washable rug companies also make high-end design available at accessible price points.
Until recently, Revival’s washable rugs consisted mostly of solids with patterns cut into them at different pile heights. Checkered, striped, and minimal geometric patterns in two to three colors have been as bold as it gets. However, it recently introduced washable poly rugs printed with Moroccan-inspired medallions and traditional floral patterns as well as bright dinosaur-themed washable wool rugs as part of an upcoming collaboration with the artist Amanda Jane Jones. (The latter are so cute that I preordered one.) I haven’t tested the latest, more colorful recycled polyester rugs, but Benjamin Hyman, CEO and cofounder of Revival, says they’re slightly less plush but better able to fit in home washers. “[We’re] constantly experimenting to see what the optimal mix is of texture and color and what will work best,” Hyman says. “It’s taken us probably close to a year to develop them.” Aside from the dinos, the colors lean mostly neutral and soft.
You can find practically any print and color palette you can dream up in Ruggable’s massive assortment. The company has its own designs but is always coming out with a new collaboration with partners ranging from popular entertainment franchises like Bridgerton and Disney to design icons like Jonathan Adler, Justina Blakeney, Iris Apfel, and—my personal favorite—Morris & Co. I found the Morris & Co. prints irresistible, even though I hadn’t liked the first rug I bought from the company. Ruggable just issued a new collection of Morris & Co. rugs for spring; I have my eye on the Trellis print.
Revival has a beautifully curated selection (and some of the cutest kids’ room rugs around), but Ruggable offers a much larger and more diverse selection, especially if you’re looking for bold colors and patterns for adult spaces.
I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by how complicated it was to wash the area rugs I tested that are 6'-by-9' in size and bigger. I have a small (but amazing) Miele washer and dryer, so I didn’t plan on washing them at home, but I did expect to be able to wash them at my local laundromat. I packed them in the back of my car (not an easy task), hauled them over, and got them inside only to realize there wasn’t a big enough machine—even the “jumbo” machines at this laundromat weren’t big enough, especially for the Revival recycled-polyester rug, which has a thicker, stiffer backing.
The ladies at the laundromat looked at the rugs and told me that I needed to find a 100-pound machine to give them enough room to move around to actually get clean. I spent a couple of hours calling around to see if any laundromats had one of those; I found one that had an 80-pound machine, so I decided to take a chance. It ended up working great. What I learned in the process is that a true 60-pound machine probably would have been fine—but the machine I was told was 60 pounds might not actually have been that big. TLDR: It’s kind of a crapshoot taking these things to the laundromat. Call ahead before you go to the trouble of loading up your car.
The largest Revival washable rugs that can go in a washing machine are 8’-by-10’ rugs; the company recommends spot cleaning or dry-cleaning larger ones. Rugs smaller than 5’ by 8’ can go in your home washer, but in-between sizes need to be washed in a commercial washer.
“There are these inherent trade-offs that you have with the plushness of a rug and can you fit it in your home washing machine,” Hyman told me. “These are some of the things that we've grappled with as we've scaled this part of our business. What's more important to customers: Is it the peace of mind of knowing that even if you buy a big rug, you can spot clean it or take it to a commercial laundromat? And so we opted for slightly more plush rugs that you could take into a laundromat or spot clean, although some of the smaller ones can fit into washers.” The company is in the process of creating a washer size guide; here’s its most up-to-date guidance.
My smaller wool and cotton rugs were a cinch to wash at home. The 6’-by-9’ polyester one was more of a challenge. It was significantly harder than the much larger Ruggable rug I tested to fit into an 80-pound commercial washer. It took elbow grease and strategic folding to get in. The backing is thicker than on the Ruggable rugs, which makes it more difficult to ball up. Once it was in the washer, however, I watched it swish around in the soapy water and saw that there was plenty of room for it to move around and get thoroughly clean.
It’s ideal to line dry Revival’s rugs, but the website says in the care instructions for each product that it’s okay tumble dry them on low or no heat, so I did that because I didn’t want to put a soaking wet, heavy rug back in my car. It did fine in the commercial dryer—and actually dried much faster than the Ruggable rug in spite of having the heavier backing—but I did notice a few pulls on the backing after I took it out. I can’t say for sure if those are from the wash or dry part of the process.
Ruggable’s website offers a very detailed washer size guide for all sizes and textures of its washable rugs. For the tufted standard pile rugs, you can wash up to size 8’ by 10’ in most home washing machines (so long as yours has a capacity of at least 4.5 cu ft). My rug was larger than that (and my home machine is smaller), so I needed to go to a laundromat and use a commercial machine. Ruggable says a 9’-by-12’ tufted standard rug should fit into a 5.5 cu ft washing machine. I found that it fit into a 60-pound (8 cu ft) machine, but without much room to circulate; in my opinion, it fit better into an 80-pound (11.5 cu ft) machine. I didn’t break a sweat getting it in; the material crumples easily and is like a heavy, thin blanket. It moved around easily in the washer, and I could see it getting thoroughly clean.
It’s designed to go in the dryer, but it did take about 30 minutes longer than the Revival rug to get dry enough for me to take it home. I folded it over a wood drying rack to let it finish drying, which took about a day. Washing the small shag rug was as easy as washing a blanket—my only issue was that when I took it out of the dryer I could feel a slight residue on it. Next time, I’ll run an extra rinse cycle to get all the soap out.
Ruggable polyester rugs are easier to machine wash than Revival ones. If you’re looking for a large area rug, Ruggable is the clear winner. In spite of what the companies say in their wash guides, realistically speaking, you’re going to need/want to go to the laundromat to use a commercial machine to wash a large rug from either brand. We don’t want you to break your home washer.
Both brands offer round and rectangular area rugs and runners. You’ll find that some designs come in more size and shape options than others.
Revival offers its washable rugs in custom sizes in addition to standard round and rectangular area rugs and runners. The solid color rugs come in more size options: up to 11, ranging from roughly 2-by-3 to 11-by-15. The 3-by-5 size makes a nice, large bath mat.
Ruggable doesn’t offer custom size rugs, but every pattern I checked comes in 13 different sizes, including round and rectangular area rugs and runners. They range from 2-by-3 to 10-by-14. Ruggable makes specific doormats, but any rug in the 2-by-3 size could function as a standard size doormat.
Ruggable has more size options, especially for patterned rugs. If you need a custom size, check out Revival’s options; it also offers an 11-by-15 size, which is larger than Ruggable’s largest option (just note that it isn’t machine washable).
Revival washable rugs are slightly more affordable than Ruggable washable rugs.
Revival has a more generous free shipping and return policies as well as insurance. Ruggable offers a formal warranty program.
It honestly depends on your situation and your priorities. If you want a large rug you can wash frequently, which I think is the most appealing use case for these rugs, go with Ruggable. If you’re looking for a natural fiber rug, go with Revival. If you want a designer print, go with Ruggable. If you want a sophisticated neutral rug, go with Revival. Personally, I love the Revival wool and Ruggable tufted standard rugs best—so much so that I’ve ordered another of each on my own dime.
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