In the rug industry, knock-off silk looking rugs are referred to as Viscose or Tencel. Viscose and Tencel are a blend of “dissolving cellulose” (wood pulp fibers and cotton by products) and chemicals. Specifically bamboo for Viscose and eucalyptus for Tencel. Not only is the production of this textile terrible for the environment, it makes incredibly WEAK fibers. The same process is used to make cellophane.
1) Yellowing – cellulose fibers yellow when wet, so any liquid that spills on viscose has the potential to turn the rug yellow. Try to clean the yellow, and you will just make it worse. Citrus based detergents seem to give us the best results.
2) Shedding – because the fibers making up the thread are weak and short, they break and shed. Normal wear and tear (vacuuming and walking on it) will pull lose strands and eventually make the rug look shaggy. Compare it to a sweater that pills. Washing/cleaning it just makes it worse. You have to shave off the offending stragglers to keep the fabric looking good.
3) Bleeding – viscose & Tencel just don’t hold dye. When you clean it, you are removing some of the dye. Usually it will fade a shade or two with each wash – and usually two washes are required to clean these rugs because one pass using a small amount of water to prevent yellowing, won’t do the job. So one pass for a half clean rug one shade lighter, or two passes for a very clean rug two shades lighter. How about those options?
4) Stiffening – the fibers of these fake silk rugs will never be as soft as they were before cleaning. They get hard and scratchy after cleaning. The rugs need to be misted with a softener and then hand groomed (carefully to prevent #2) during drying and again after it is fully dry. So the short version – these rugs are 4x as difficult to clean as a quality rug, and come out looking way worse despite the extra effort.
The morale of my story is this: Don’t waste your money. Buy a wool rug, buy a lower quality silk rug, buy synthetic. Stay away from Tencel and Viscose, (Art Silk, Rayon… fake silk.)