# Removing Old Labels?



## Ol Tex (Jan 19, 2009)

I'm sure this has been discussed, but as a newbie I'm gonna ask. What's the easiest way to remove labels from wine bottles? I have friends and family saving their bottles for me so I can recycle them and fill with my homemade wines. (I know they're wanting a bottle or two in return..LOL)
Right now, I have some soaking in 10% bleach/hot water solution. Is there a better way? Thanks in advance!
John


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## Rocky_Top (Jan 19, 2009)

Fill the tub, laundry sink or large container with water, add oxy clean and let soak over night. find a plastic scaper of some kind and have fun. Some lables will fall off others will take a little work. A word of warning, if the lables fall off do not leave them on the floor. They are much harder to scrape off the floor.


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## NorthernWinos (Jan 19, 2009)

I soak in plain hot water and use a paint scraper with a new razor blade....try to get under the hot glue and scrape around the bottle, not up and down.

Works for me....


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## Wade E (Jan 19, 2009)

Tub full of hot water and Oxyclean(Walmart Sun Brand). Straight A cleanser works better though.


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## Rocky_Top (Jan 19, 2009)

NW, I bet that a razor scraper works well. 


Wade, Is the J and J no tears shampoo for you or the kids.


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## gaudet (Jan 19, 2009)

and a small scotch brite type scrubbing pad will help to take off the residual glue left on the bottles. Trust me on this one...................... They work great. Soak your bottles for a day or two in h20 or h20 with oxyclean and then strip your labels off with the plastic dish scraper mentioned above. Then take your scotch bright pad and rub out the remaining glue. All thats left is to rinse, scrub and sanitize before bottling.....


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## Wade E (Jan 19, 2009)

I also use the razor scraper for the tough ones and a scrubber is also handy. With all these tools handy the job will be much easier. The J&amp;J is for the 5 year old boy. I shower upstairs where the water pressure is much better for some reason.


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## Rube-a-Billy (Jan 19, 2009)

Rocky Top said:


> Fill the tub, laundry sink or large container with water, add oxy clean and let soak over night. find a plastic scaper of some kind and have fun. Some lables will fall off others will take a little work. A word of warning, if the lables fall off do not leave them on the floor. They are much harder to scrape off the floor.




I don't know if it is the water softner or what is causing the problem of there being a film on the bottles after i use this method. I have even followed it up with a washing them in the dishwasher. Anyone else run into this and if so do you have any recomendations would be greatly appreciated




For now i'm going to switch to plain water. in smaller batches to see if the film persists. 


rube


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## Wade E (Jan 19, 2009)

Get the bottle blaster to wash them out thoroughly after cleaning them!


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## wctisue (Jan 19, 2009)

_I have even followed it up with a washing them in the dishwasher_


I run all my bottles through the dishwasher with no soap and have the sanitizer mode selected. These are all clean bottles -- most had our wine in them previously. After the hot treatment in the dishwasher, I run sanitizer through each bottle. Over kill? Probably. Easy to do? Definitely!


Wayne


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## whino-wino (Jan 19, 2009)

I do a combination of the above.


Soak in hot water for at least 3 hours.


Scrape AROUND the bottle, not up and down. Some need no scraping at all and just peel right off, otherscan be a real pain.


Instead of a Scotch Brite pad,Iusea copper scouring pad. You can usually get these at your local supermarket.


Feel the glue first before attempting to scrub it off. If it is "sticky" don't bother as it will onlyclog up your scouring pad. Buy some Goo Gone, give it a little squirtandthe sticky stuffwill usually rub right off. If the glue seems dry and hard the copper pad will take if off in about 2 seconds.


If you can't find Goo Gone, the other chemical aid I use is gasket remover. This you can get at an auto parts store. It's water soluble but will make your skin itch if you don't wash your arms and hands right away when finished. You also need to do this in a well ventilated area. I'd only reccomend this for the very toughest ones.


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## Rocky_Top (Jan 20, 2009)

Rube-a-Billy said:


> Rocky Top said:
> 
> 
> > Fill the tub, laundry sink or large container with water, add oxy clean and let soak over night. find a plastic scaper of some kind and have fun. Some lables will fall off others will take a little work. A word of warning, if the lables fall off do not leave them on the floor. They are much harder to scrape off the floor.
> ...


I forgota thing or two: 
I fill the bottles with water and stand them up in the laundry sink then I fill the sink with water and add oxy clean. Then when the lable is off I use a sos pad to get the residue off the outside. I am sure that some other pad would be better.I use the sink drain to help hold the bottle whe scrubbing.After the outside is clean Iscrub the inside with b-bright.


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## NorthernWinos (Jan 20, 2009)

I also get the annoying dusty film on the bottles if I use OxyClean,,,,so just use hot water...

Brush and bottle blaster are a must.

Scouring pad or Stainless Steel curly things do come in handy too....

I really don't mind cleaning bottles...all part of the process and signals that bottling day will soon arrive....


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## Ol Tex (Jan 20, 2009)

Thanks, everyone! Got my sleeves rolled up and heeeeere I go to fight the battle of the label.


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## BDKS (Jan 23, 2009)

Rube-a-Billy said:


> Rocky Top said:
> 
> 
> > Fill the tub, laundry sink or large container with water, add oxy clean and let soak over night. find a plastic scaper of some kind and have fun. Some lables will fall off others will take a little work. A word of warning, if the lables fall off do not leave them on the floor. They are much harder to scrape off the floor.
> ...



I don't have any problems with our water softener. I did have the same problem. I use less oxyclean and the problem went away. We seem to use less cleaners with softened water compared to without.


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## Big Ike (Sep 5, 2009)

Any recommendations on removing what I would call "painted" labels (no paper, but all info seems to be painted on the bottles, i.e., silver oak napa bottles)?

Thanks,
Ike


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## grapeman (Sep 5, 2009)

I either use them with the old finish on them or if they aren't to my liking, I throw them out.


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## Big Ike (Sep 5, 2009)

LOL, that's great. Thanks for reply.


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## pelican (Sep 6, 2009)

My source of empties has a number of "painted" bottles. I just put my label over the top of the painted label since anyone I give the wine too is going to know it's homemade and recycled bottles anyway!


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## Big Ike (Sep 6, 2009)

That's a good point too.

Thanks,
Ike


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## Wade E (Sep 6, 2009)

If you reallt want to strip them ZipStrip paint remover will do so.


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## uavwmn (Sep 7, 2009)

Ol Tex, I use a paint scraper. And then use WD-40 spray on the glue. Comes right off. Wipe with a paper towel.


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## Joanie (Sep 9, 2009)

I used to use a big tub but I ended up making a big mess. Lately I've been filling a very large stock pot half full of water, setting it on the stove, filling 5 bottles with hot water, then putting the bottles in the stock pot. Sometimes just having hot water in the bottles will be enough to let me lift the labels right off. (I so love those!) If that doesn't take them off, the water heating in the stock pot does the trick.


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## Runningwolf (Sep 10, 2009)

I do 24 bottles at a time in the laundry sink. I fill the bottles up with very hot water than fill the sink up with hot water just above the labels. I add about three scoops of oxy-clean to the water. I wait 20-30 minutes than remove the labels. If you wait any longer the water in the bottles starts to cool and the glue becomes hard again making it difficult to remove the labels. Note..after reading the previous posts, next time I am going to try leaving the oxy-clean out as I also get the film on the bottles. Besides it makes them very slippery when scrapping off the labels.


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## Brent2489 (Sep 11, 2009)

I use the stainless steel pot scrubber method. 10-12 bottles takes 15-20 minutes. Wet the labels and leave in one side of the sink and work my way thru the labels that are stubborn with a-little elbow grease. I also liberally apply liquid soap to get rid of the sticky stuff.


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## Runningwolf (Sep 14, 2009)

I tried cleaning a batch of bottles tonight without the oxy-clean (just plain hot water). Forget it! I had much better luck with oxy-clean in the sink. I'll just take the extra time to make sure Irinse the bottles good to aviod the film on the outside of the bottles.


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## xanxer82 (Oct 14, 2009)

I'm debating whether to get some new bottles or not.
I have roughly 10 750ml bottles but I need 30. They are mixed sizes shapes and colors.
I think by the time I'm ready to bottle I will maybe have 5 to 10 more. The kit I have calls for 30. Perhaps I should order a few more to have some to get me started. Or I think that I need to drink more wine to get enough bottles.  
Either way, how many people buy brand new bottles instead of recycling them?


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## Runningwolf (Oct 14, 2009)

It depends on what your paying for new bottles and if you have access to good used ones or not. If you can pick up new ones for 7.00 a case it might be worth buying new ones for your first batch. We just had a wine fest in our area and i picked up 40 cases of used bottles for 2.00 a case. I knew that getting them from this one winery in paticular the labels are not a bear to get off. Just ensure the labels you are putting on the bottles you make are fairly easy to come off in the future. This makes life a lot easier. To answer your question, recycle!


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## Big Ike (Oct 14, 2009)

After just a few months of this I can tell you that I agree with the wolf. I've got two different wine bars in my area that are happy to save me a case of empties a week. There are a lot of mix and matched shapes and colors, but it doesn't take long to have a few cases of like sized and colored bottles.


One of the wine bars called me today and told me to get in there because they had three cases for me. Recycle.


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## xanxer82 (Oct 15, 2009)

Big Ike said:


> After just a few months of this I can tell you that I agree with the wolf. I've got two different wine bars in my area that are happy to save me a case of empties a week. There are a lot of mix and matched shapes and colors, but it doesn't take long to have a few cases of like sized and colored bottles.
> 
> 
> One of the wine bars called me today and told me to get in there because they had three cases for me. Recycle.



I really like the idea of asking wine bars for empties.
There is a nice little wine bar about 3 miles from the house. I may see if they would save a case of empties. 

thanks for the ideas and information.


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