Best label removal hack EVER

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I tried the oven, but still had trouble with a bunch. I tried a heat gun, but was worried, and read reports, that excessive heat could cause residual stress in the glass.
I will say that the absolute best thing for removing any kind of adhesive is NAPHTHA. Otherwise known as Coleman fluid. It’s cheap ($10/gallon) compared to all the other things I’ve ever tried, but extremely flammable. It dissolves adhesives like water dissolved sugar. I wear rubber gloves when using it.
 
Tried the oven, tried all the other methods. Some worked on some plenty didn't work on others. Residual glue is a pain and I'm not inclined to use harsh noxious chemicals. So, I quit using used commercial bottles and started buying new ones and using easy peel labels that I read about on another thread here and they are great. Buying bottles isn't too bad if they are easy to wash and peel. Plus they come with a box. Worth it to me anyway.
 
Rather than revive an old thread, I just wanted to say thank you to @CDrew for the best label removing hack I've find to date. I had some bottles given to me but the labels were impossible to get off so I was ready to throw them out. Your method is working like a charm!!!View attachment 63330
Cdrew and Val, I am looking forward to trying the oven trick: soaking and scraping is for the birds! I remove the glue/gum residue easily with "GOO GONE."..................Dizzy
 
If you're lucky enough to live near a wine making supply store where you can buy bottles for about $1 or less, then it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of time and energy salvaging wine bottles. Those people who don't have a local bottle source have to pay shipping to get bottles in. The costs of shipping doubles your bottle costs. When I was in that position, I scrounged every bottle I could spending hours on label removal.

The method I used called for letting the bottles soak in a sink filled with easy clean and, after a half hour, scraping off the label and glue with a box cutter for the more stubborn situations. Unfortunately, the later seemed to be the case with the majority of bottles I procured.
 
I don't live near a wine making supply store but I have bought from wineries. With friends neighbors, and family saving bottles I rarely need bottles.
 
I don't live near a wine making supply store but I have bought from wineries. With friends neighbors, and family saving bottles I rarely need bottles.
Not many wineries where I live (Alberta), but I have enough bottles from friends and family now that I can finally recycle the ones with tough labels.
Wait a second... I just Googled "wineries in alberta". Who knew? I guess you don't need grapes to make wine. Oh, right, that's what I'm doing now. LOL.
 
So tired of removing labels.....
I use my labels for wine gifts and my main (beautiful) wine rack in dining area of house. I use the wine tags in my wine cellar, that's the wine we drink around the house. I do keep a drawer with extra printed labels just in case I have to get some together for a wedding or something from cellar. I have always just soaked bottles for a day or two outside then commence to scrubbing. SUCKS.
 
I’ve tried just about every way. My favorite is a heat gun for a couple of minutes then most will peel off. Some still need scraping. Anymore than that and in the recycle bin it goes. Do the heat with air moving or outside- that glue will give you a headache.
 
I always stick bottles in the oven at 250 degrees for about ten minutes. most labels will peel right off without any residual but every once in a while some will leave a residue. For those stubborn bottles I clean them with with VN&P Naphtha which works quickly and leaves no residue whatsoever. I've found that mineral spirits will leave an oily residue and doesn't work as well as naphtha.
 
I've found some bottles with a water soluble glue back label and a temperature sensitive front label. Oven or boiling water takes care of the front and soaking takes care of the back.
 
Same as the above technique in combination with a paint scraper or sharp knife. I wipe the bottle with acetone to remove any remaining glue. I have no patience for bottle labels that don't play along. Those bottles go straight into the glass recycle bin.
 
I use a 5 gal bucket fill half with hot water and add a scoop of oxiclean. Fill bottles with hot water and put in bucket fill rest of the way. After a day or so paper labels fall or peal right off. If they don’t I run a sharp knife up and down label refill with hot water and put back in bucket. Works pretty good.
 
105F is hardly even hot water, I doubt it will do much.
Worth a try... Couldn't hurt... Much less mess and time spent if it works... I used to leave floppy disks on top of my CRT monitor. The little bit of extra warmth made a huge difference in how easily those labels peeled off. How old am I, right??? LOL No, they were NOT 5 1/4" disks... although I did have lots of those too, just never needed to remove their labels. Hahaha. And how many of you have seen an 8" floppy disk? I used a few of those too!!
 
Worth a try... Couldn't hurt... Much less mess and time spent if it works... I used to leave floppy disks on top of my CRT monitor. The little bit of extra warmth made a huge difference in how easily those labels peeled off. How old am I, right??? LOL No, they were NOT 5 1/4" disks... although I did have lots of those too, just never needed to remove their labels. Hahaha. And how many of you have seen an 8" floppy disk? I used a few of those too!!

Floppy disks, I laugh at those. How about back when you had to know what switches to have up and which ones down to boot a Dec (Digital Equipment Company) PDP 11 computer?? and an 80 Mb disk platter was a big round thing with 8 or 10 read heads. Everything you wrote had to reside in 32K of address space or was it even less, it has been a long time since I thought about that.
 

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