Removing Commercial Bottle Labels

Getting ready to clean up some used commercial wine bottles.
My plan is to put them in the bath tube and let them soak.

What is a good cleaner to help soak off the old labels?

Any suggestions about how to make this process any easier?

Well, you could put together a paste of TNT and plastic explosive and hydrochloric acid... OK, just kidding... a little.

I have found that putting the bottles through the hottest water cycle you have on your dishwasher for about 10 minutes then removing the bottles, one at a time, while still wet and hot, most US labels come off with just a little elbow grease in the way of a razor and a rough scouring pad. European labels are another issue. Some of them require multiple soaks and extreme elbow grease and even after that, they sometimes don't come clean.

I have tried soaking the bottles in a mixture of water and oxyclean, but again, you have to get to work on the bottle while it is still wet and warm. For me, the dishwasher plan seems to work the best.

I have a big platic tub and plenty of hot scalding water. soak a couple hours and most come off. Scotch Brite pads get the gunk off.

Goo-Gone works on the glue that won't come off with soaking or scraping.

Use a kitchen scraper to get off anything that won't come off after soaking for ~30 minutes in hot water with Oxyclean or something similar. I have found that charcoal starter on a paper towel makes an excellent solvent to remove the gummy residue that won't easily come off and its cheap!

And the ones that still won't come off- throw away!

I usually soak bottles in very hot water and oxy clean for 45 minutes then scrape with razor blade. I do two cases at a time. Last time I forgot about them and they soaked for 24 hours (I use a laundry sink in my wine making area) and I have to admit they were twice as easy to clean. I keep the bottles up right and fill them with hot water also. I do not let the oxy clean get inside of them (just my preference).

Thanks, all, for the suggestions.

Wal-mart gave me a 5-gallon plastic bucket with lib. Cake frosting came in it. It is at least some level of "food grade", but I'm not sure what level. It was kind of messy to clean it up, but it is a nice bucket.

Anyway, I can get several bottles in it at one time. I'm going to use it to soak those bottle for several days. That and a scraper should do the trick.

Later I went to another grocery store, which also has a deli and bakery. Them also gave me some nice food-grade buckets, only they were about 3-gallon size. They will work great for corks and other things. Apparently some of the stores will give you all their buckets, if you ask.

I use a scraper to remove the label then spray a little WD40 on anything remaining and rub it off with a paper towel. I do this in front of th TV. I can do two cases in an hour. Use a towel to hold the bottle while scraping to avoid cuts. Learned this the hard way!

When I am ready to bottle I wash and sanitize before filling.

hot water, oxiclean. If the glue doesn't come off I spray a little WD40 and wipe with a paper towel. Glues comes off instantly.

Scrap the label off as best as possible with a razor blade.

Wipe off the glue with a paper towel soaked with 91 percent rubbing alcohol ... from Walmart. Make sure you get 91 percent ... low percentage rubbing alcohol doesn't do the tricl

I soak in Cascade Dish soak in the tub, then use a window paint razor scraper I bought at HD. Easy to hold on to vs. just the razor blade

I use a razor blade scraper and a brillo pad for the stubborn glue. Save up 5-8 bottles, wet all the labels and go to work with the razor blade. 15-20 mins for 6-8 bottles.

I vote for the dishwasher on high heat with some scraping using a kitchen scraper and Goo-Gone for any leftover residue. I've tried the oxyclean & hot water method, but it did not seem to work as good for me. I did 18 bottles in 1 cycle of the dishwasher (before drying) today, and I thought that was pretty good, because it wasn't the only thing I was trying to accomplish at the time.

Joan said:

Goo-Gone works on the glue that won't come off with soaking or scraping.

Click to expand...

Yep. That stuff works GREAT! I don't even use a scouring pad. Just dab a little goo-gone on a paper towel and wipe. Glue comes right off.




You should pay attention to what the glue is like under the label. If it's hard and flaky, it will probably come off with a copper scrubbing pad. If it's sticky and it smears around, use the Goo-Gone. You can buy that stuff just about anywhere. I've never had to give up on a bottle. Goo Gone works every time but I only use it if I have to.


Like others said, give the bottles a good soak first.


Another option, but more expensive than goo gone, is to use gasket remover which can be purchased at any auto parts store. It's nasty stuff though. The one I use will actually melt wood ticks. They turn into little brown puddles. In other words, you don't want that stuff in contact with your skin.