Cleaning old bottles,,,

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myakkagldwngr

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Even after soaking over night, cleaning my free bottles is a chore.. Most of the bottles are imported wine and the labels have to be scraped.
I can soak about 75 over night at a time, then it's just the elbow grease.
How do you store all your old bottles. I've got a couple hundred from Carraba's so far with no end in sight.
 
That reason alone is why I dont even bother soaking them anymore as lots of them still dont come off. I just scrape them dry now and actually I find it faster that way anyways. As far as storage goes I just put them in upside down in the box and sanitize them before use.
 
Alas,,, NO BOXES!
I'm going to have to find some where to buy cheap boxes that will work.
 
I know which bottles have labels that won't come off now so what I do is just put the new label right over them . It's only for our personal use & I don't care the wine tastes the same either way . If it was wine I planned on giving away like some of you do at Christmas time then I would use bottles that the labels come off easy . But i will say I used the Mr Clean magic eraser and it cleaned some of the labels off that I couldn't get off before .
 
I like to fill a new 30 gallon garbage can with water in the morning, (set it in a spot that will get sun all day) pack in as many bottles as I can and wait till the heat of the day starts to drop off. The warm to hot water really does make a big difference in releasing the adhesive on stubborn labels.

If I still have some bottles that give me a hard time I just pitch them.
 
I have never used the magic eraser on bottles, but that Mr Clean erser is absolutely amazing!!! Thats a helluva a produt there I have seen those remove things that nothing else would.
 
I have a window scraper that I use to scrape the label off then I use some charcoal lighter fluid on a paper towel to remove the stubborn glue
 
I soak about 8 at a time. let em sit for a day or two. Then scrape using Goo Gone... stuff is like magic. After that I run through the dishwasher and store them covered above my garage until I need em.

When I need em they go back through the dishwasher and then get sanitized..... my bottles shine!:hug:hug
 
I usually soak mine for about an hour and then scrape them. There are somtimes that I need to use Goo Gone, if you have never tried Desolve it, try it. It is like Goo Gone but in a spray bottle. I found that soaking the bottles more than an hour does not do anything for them.
 
My last batch of Bordeaux bottles I doubled the amount of laundry soap that I would use to wash clothes. The labels came off a little better and yes Goo Gone works great it's just hard to hold the bottles they are so slippery.

Once they're done my labels come off easy. Good Hot soapy water.
 
My last batch of Bordeaux bottles I doubled the amount of laundry soap that I would use to wash clothes.

Wow, I'e never thought of using the washing machine?? I bet it's really noisey!!
I just couldn't resist that one.
Soaking and elbow grease is working. I cleaned about 25 750's + another 18 1.5's that were clear.
I have 50 or 60 soaking in my big sink outside, but it rained most the day yesterday, so I was stuck with the laundry sink in the utility room
Today I'll get working on them, but we have more rain moving in off the gulf.
 
I used the Goo gone but would only use it sparingly because i was worry about it getting in the bottles and it's hard to wash off because it's oily .
 
I ended up soaking them in Dawn dishwashing liquid, then scraping the labels. A scrubby brush got the last of the stubborn glue off.
I gave them a good going over with a bottle brush on the insided then rinsed with clean water.
Now if I can find a place to store them it should just be another quick rinse, sanitize and bottle away.
When I save my bottles, I usually rinse them out immediately after they are empty and stick the used cork back in finger tight.
 
I wouldn't put the used corks back in if I was going to do that I would use clean corks .I store mine either upside down or on thier side .
 
I'm talking about the bottles I've just emptied myself. I just rinse them out and the push the cork back in to keep dust, dirt and any other nasties that might try to make them a home.
The later I go ahead and hit them with the bottle brush and sanatize them.
I've found there is very little harder to clean out than dust that has hardened.
 

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