Label removal?

We've gotten quite good with the label removing process. First you have to sort them. There are water soluble labels and pain in the butt labels. To know which from which you have to look at the label from the back of the bottle (through the glass to see the unprinted side, if that makes any sense) if there seem to be lines of glue, like the back side is striped with glue, then it's water soluble. You can also check by trying to peel it off, if the corner that you manage to lift off is sticky to the touch don't put it in water! Makes it worse trying to get it off later. Most of the water soluble ones will just slip off with a 30 minute soak. The rest you will have to get off by applying an adhesive remover/gas/paint solvent or whatever you may have ( don't get this in your bottles ) and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then gently peel it off re-applying your solvent if necessary. After that it's just a matter of the usual bottle cleaning routine. Hope this helps! Louise:o)

Water-based glue labels come off fairly easily with a 30-minute hot-water soak.

Commercial labels come off with a combination of a scraper and paint-thinner or solvent.. scrape, lightly soak/sponge for 10 minutes, scrape again, then soak.. Once off, finally wash with dish soap and rinse.

I've gotten too lazy to deal with commercial labels and end up just buying new bottles. :)

LG

Eucalyptus oil works well to get these off. Scrape off what you can, soak the remaining adhesive with a small quantity of eucalyptus oil for 10 minutes or so, and the adhesive should come off. Wash in hot water & detergent.

Clears the sinuses too.

Geoff, North Loburn New Zealand

Any label that does not come off easily after a 30 minute hot water soak is not worth the effort or expense of buying some sort of toxic glue remover. I'm on a septic system, so I avoid those kinds of products. If I really need bottles, then I'd rater spend $1 on a new bottle that $10 on chemicals. Al

Akator, Some labels are a lot more difficult than others depending adhesive (thanks Weez for the tip for recognizing water-soluble labels).

Bottles I've labeled myself I clean regularly and easily as they are all water-soluble.

Commercial bottles: I collect for awhile and then fill the bathtub with HOT water and 1/2 bottle of "Goo Gone" adhesive remover. Submerge 3-4 dozen bottles over night. By morning labels are managable to remove. Some with little effort. Others require scaping with hard plastic scraper (still fairly easy process at this point), followed by rubbing away final stickies with regular kitchen scouring pad. The odd bottle will still defy a thorough cleaning. If I really like the bottle, I'll live with it, and later label over the adhesive part. Commercial adhesive remnants will later come off with second washing. Note: use a drain strainer. You want your plumbing to swallow the swamp, but not the paper.

There may be better adhesive removers. I use:

Jim

TSP (aka wall cleaner) in powder form in cold water in a tub works really well. about 1/2 cup of powdered TSP/ 4-5 gallons. After ~2 days, labels fall off.

But if you use the bathtub you have to take a bath in the kitchen sink :o)

I put all bottles in a large tub filled with a mild bleach solution. If you use a bleach solution in your normal cleaning/sanitizing process, you can dump the solution into the tub rather than down the drain. I use a razor blade scraper (see

and stainless steel wool (see to remove ANY label. With a good scraper, even the glued plastic labels come off with a minute or two of elbow grease time.

David Denver, CO USA

My 2 cents.

REALLY HARD STICKY COMMERCIAL LABELS (I feel these gorgeous bottles are worth re-cycling)

1) With really hot water- fill the bottle. 2) Let bottle sit for 10 minutes with really hot water inside. 3) Bottle is very hot- peel off label (adhesive remains). 4) Let bottle sit in hot soapy water (very soapy) for 30 minutes. 5) TRICK: Using the side of a wood chisel (mine is 1/2" wide)scrape off the major adhesive. Side of my chisel is a very square, sharp right angle and makes a better scraper than anything I have used. 6) After 5 day soak in the soapy water, use the side od the chisel again. Adhesive scrapes off easily.

Takes about 1.5 hour total for 20 bottles, start to finish. Works for me.

-- KB St. Charles, MO

I get my Hubby to do it.....

i just ran across this in "grape stompers" today. haven't tried (or even heard of) it, just passing it along:

*-----------------HOT TIP------------------* Need a way to remove stubborn labels from a recycled bottle of wine?

Here's a tip from a former auto refinisher: Use an automotive product called "Auto Prep", or "Krill Clean". When applied with a small moistened cloth, it immediately breaks down the sticky (or dried) glue thus rolling off the glass in most cases, eliminating the need for a razor blade. It is so user friendly that it does not even harm the recent paint sprayed on a vehicle the night before. It is effortless to use although it is a petroleum-based product, so washing of hands would be a good idea!

It's available at places like NAPA or other auto paint stores.

I soak my bottles for 24 hrs or more in the laundry tub, upright and full of water of course. I tried once... and only once to speed the process by heating the water on the stove.... later when capping. pooof lots of them broke. Seems with some bottles this changes the tensile strength of the glass. When I get a particulartly tough glue I use a quick shot of WD40 . then the paring knife, I use a scotch brillo pad to clean this off to a nice polish.

cheers Marv

I use a 5-in-1 painters tool to cut the labels off with. It is like a putty knife with a sharpened blade on the end of it. It allows me to have more control than a razor blade or a paring knife. Once I get the label off, I use orange mechanics hand cleaner to get the gum off the bottle. It has pumice in it and a dab on a scrubbing pad usually get all the gummy glue off the bottle. Just make sure you clean with soapy water afterwards to remove any residue from the cleaner, and rinse well with clean water.

Stephen Stratford, PEI