Any tips for removing wine bottle labels?

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Riperoo

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Have some empties I have been saving up and was wondering if anyone has any easy peasy tricks for getting labels off. I was thinking of soaking like 3 or so at a time in a five gallon bucket with some sanitizer, thought that might help, but I am sure it has been done before, so, thought I would ask......Thanks in advance!!
 
I soak mine in the spare bathtub that we never use in hot water at first and then just let sit for a few days. Use a stiff plastic kitchen spatula to scrape the labels off the bottles. The bathtub area gives plenty of space to work also. Haven't met a label that I couldn't get off. (yet) :b
 
I soak in warm soapy water.
either in the kitchen sink or in a 5 gallon bucket in the garage. However these days the warm water does not stay warm for long.

I use a plastic paint scraper for the labels.
the labels usually come off easy after a day or 2 of soaking. The issue I have is the glue behind tend to goop up and stick around.
I will wet a paper towel of a course sanding sponge (kind of like steel wool, but sythetic) with some goo be gone and get the glue off.
 
I soak in the hottest water I can with some dish soap. the labels from most local PA winery's comes off with in an hour or less. I scrub with a stainless steel scrubber to get all the paper and glue off. Some more big commercial wines and some labels in general are just a pain and leave glue goop... then its time for goo gone and a rewash
 
I was at the brewer supply store last week. They had a tool that was basically a semicircle scraper with a handle for doing this job. I think a soak is still necessary.

Pressure sensitive labels are a chore to remove!

or relabel over the old labels. It starts to look like the validation tag on my license plate :)
 
Here is what I do :

1) Fill bottle with hot water trying to avoid splashing water onto label
2) Wait several minutes
3) Peel label only if there is only small amount of glue left on bottle. If it does not peel well, I stop
4) Let water in bottle
5) Fill sink with hot water and oxyclean
6) Put bottle into sink
7) Let it sit there for 24H
8) Remove remaining glue with a standard foam scrubber. 10 seconds max per bottle.
9) If glue do not remove easily, I use goo be gone
10) Rinse well outside and inside

Doing this minimize the grease elbow usage!

Good luck and happy cleaning. I took most of these tricks from this forum.

Yves
 
Hot soak, scrape, Goof Off on a paper towel to remove residual glue (wipes right off). :h
 
I was cleaning bottles last night.
I am given bottles by friends and family, so some easily come off some dont.
I tried soaking in warm water with some oxyclean.
I actually boiled some water to warm it up.

After a 2 hour soak, some labels came right off. Some did not.
I ended up having to soak a few bottles with goo be gone and scrape the label off.
I find that if the label does not come off easiy, than it needs to soak more.
I find some labels we just never meant to come off.
then there was a bottle with the label almost printed on to the bottle. I gave up and tossed it.
I have come to the point that if It takes me more than 5 to 10 minutes to clear a label, I toss it.

I can pick up 12 bottles for $15 at the store to supliment my bottle habbit. There are many other things I would rather be doing at 11 at night than scraping a bottle.
 
I have friends who save bottles for me as well. What pisses me off is that they don't rinse out the bottles when they are done with them (I know, don't look a gift horse in the mouth) ...but I give them free wine!!!!! Every couple months I come home from work and find a bag of bottles sitting by the garage door.
When I get them into the sink, some nasty looking, fuzzy, black and green stuff comes floating out of the bottles. These bottles always require some extra work to clean and sanitize. Almost not worth the effort....but still free.
 
I actually saw something on the internet advising you to bake the bottles in your oven. I think it was at 350 for about 20 minutes. We tried it and about half came off very easy...after letting them cool for a bit. The others were a pain so we soaked them in hot water with Oxi.
 
If all else fails.... use Elbow Grease!
smilie.gif


Joking aside, for the tough ones I soak some, scrape, use Goof Off for what remains and then a final wash.
 
OMG!!!! I love it. Just bought it. I will let you know. I might just start using my labels more. Im sure you still have to soak but this is so much better then a butter knife :)


I've had this for about 6 months or so. I recommend soaking you bottles (submerge in Oxi and hot water) for about a half hour. Be careful handling the labelnator. You can easily slice your hand if you don't pay attention to what you're doing.

It works very well. Worth the $10.
 
I have the time and some good P.Floyd is the patience! Razor scrape the labels off, Goo-Gone on a #0 or #00 pad of steel wool, add a little elbow grease and away you go. Quick rinse-off in soapy water (not the insides) Won't take long to discover which glues are water soluble and which are petroleum based. Careful ,,,, don't cut yourself!!! Some have made holders for the bottles to reduce the risk.
 
I soak for 12-24 hours in hot water, sometimes oxy sometimes not. If I have to scrub for more than a minute then our comes the label actor, sucker will cut your fingers:: If that doesn't do it, into the recycle bin.

I tell friends, no rinse, no reuse. I don't want to risk bringing anymore weird bugs into the winery than nature brings me.
 
Like many others, I will soak in hot tap water with oxiclean for a couple hours. After that I will use the edge of spoon and scrape the labels off. As has been mentioned some will come off easy, and some are so glued on that it's not worth the effort. If I have to put real muscle into it and I find a tough gummy residue under the label, then the rest of those bottles go into recycling. Not worth the effort now and despite goo gone and similar products doing a great job there are some bottles that you just can't get all their glue off.

Of course I'm saying this after having spent the first year scraping, scouring, cleaning, and chemically trying to remove residual glue. So I understand. Now that I mostly reuse my own bottles life is much nicer. But now for new bottles, if the label doesn't cooperate, it gets tossed.
 
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