removing labels easily

[beano]

I have two large coolers I use to cold soak my bottles. Each holds 36 bottles standing up. I add 1/4 cup bleach and a good squirt of dawn dish washing liquid and fill both the cooler and the bottles with water/bleach/soap mixture. I leave it for a week and alot of the laels come off on there own. A straight edge razor blade make quick removel of the rest. Stubborn glue is quickly removed with a trusty brillo pad. Then into the rinse bucket. This works for me. Just my 2 cents.....

Beano

 

[richmke]

Technically, it is not the heating that causes the problems, but the cooling. After all, glass bottles start out as molten glass.

All the stuff I easily found was cooling glass from 900 degrees down to 500 degrees. I'm guessing that is where most of the stress is caused when glass goes from a plastic to solid form (although technically even seemingly solid glass is a liquid).

Pyrex is designed so that it has a very low thermal expansion rate. So it is less affected by heating and cooling between oven temps and room temps.

I could see that heating bottles up to 350 degrees, and letting them cool in room air could cool the bottle too quickly and stress the glass. The more limited the range of heating (I only heat to 150 degrees), the less of an issue.

 

[sour_grapes]

Unless you put your bottles into ovens over 400 C (750 F), I think that "tip" can be disregarded.

 

[ostensibly]

I don't know......
I tried the oven method two days ago, and it didn't work for me AT ALL.
To each his/her own I guess.
I prefer to soak in hot soapy water, than go at it with my "Tools" hehe

My understanding is that there are a few different types of glue commonly used, as well as different kinds of label stock. Some combinations peel right off with no residue after warming in the oven, some come off with residue, and some glues never melt from gentle warming. Most of the cheaper-feeling labels (glossy, vinyl feeling) I've tried peel right off, I've never had nicer paper ones peel off cleanly.

I use a much lower temperature, like 200 or 250. Have not broken any.
My experience is that, yes, there is glue left behind, but it is taken care of easily by my "normal" treatment of PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) and water.

This is exactly what I do. Toss them in a 200 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, anything that doesn't peel right off or peels off leaving glue goes into the bucket of PBW. Anything that doesn't scrape right off after the PBW just gets rinsed and recycled.

 

[Takuie]

I have yet to find any label oxyclean can't remove. Even the vinyl and foil labels. Most labels fall off and float to surface in about 45 mins to an hour. Minimal scraping on the non water soluble adhesives. Ive tried the oven method and it does work, but for me there is nothing easier than soaking on oxyclean and wipe off.

 

[caper_26]

See [ THIS ] post earlier in the thread.

hot water, soap, and a metal scrubby. Takes about 7 or 8 seconds per bottle.

 

[willie]

I have tried all the suggestions on this Thread except the Goo Gone which I will try for any left over glue on the bottle. Also I have not tried the steel pad scrub mentioned and I will try that one too.
It would be real nice if all the bottlers would use just the water based glue only that would help us a lot.
Will

 

[Rosa321]

I'm not saying the oven method DOESN'T work......
I'm just saying it didn't work for ME. I personally found it difficult.
I had to take them out one by one with mits on and start the label and get it to peel and then go BACK in the oven and get another bottle (The whole while sweating my butt off! lol) Plus, a few foil labels actually burned on the bottle. And then one of my bottles was not completely cleaned, and wine burned inside. *sigh* Recycled a few bottles and chalked it up to experience!

I actually enjoy doing dishes. (I know....strange!) and I have a very large laundry room sink that holds lots of bottles. So for me it's much easier to throw 'em in, add some stuff, and forget about 'em for a few days. Brillo pads do wonders on stubborn spots!

 

[chefken]

Here is my 2 cents, The oven method has worked for most labels as long as I don't leave in too long, otherwise some labels bake onto the glass. The soaking in oxyclean over night also works with a little scraping with a razor blade. Some glue is very stubborn and I have found (thanks to my wife) that mixing equal parts of coconut oil and baking soda and with your hand just rub this on the glue area of those few stubborn bottles and in a few seconds the glue residue wipes off clean. Haven't needed to recycle any bottles since using this method.

 

[JohnT]

I have been going with purchasing new bottles for quite some time now. The number of bottles I need per year makes recycling far too labor intensive. My local sells brand new bottles for around $10 per case.

That being said, there was a time when I recycled and I have found the perfect way to remove labels, glue and all!

Get yourself a 1600psi pressure washer. A small electric model is perfect. I built a "cradle" out of chicken wire that holds each bottle as I blast them. I purchased mine at Lowes for about $100.00.

It worked great! Labels just peel off even when the bottles have not been soaked. Works real well against those stubborn plastic labels that have been applied with rubber cement!

I found that I could de-label a whole case in under 10 minutes with not a single bottle broken.

 

[Renee]

Wow that is great news JOhn but how do you insure there is no mold in those bottles when you refill them?

 

[berrycrush]

I have been going with purchasing new bottles for quite some time now. The number of bottles I need per year makes recycling far too labor intensive. My local sells brand new bottles for around $10 per case.

That being said, there was a time when I recycled and I have found the perfect way to remove labels, glue and all!

Get yourself a 1600psi pressure washer. A small electric model is perfect. I built a "cradle" out of chicken wire that holds each bottle as I blast them. I purchased mine at Lowes for about $100.00.

It worked great! Labels just peel off even when the bottles have not been soaked. Works real well against those stubborn plastic labels that have been applied with rubber cement!

I found that I could de-label a whole case in under 10 minutes with not a single bottle broken.

Like this one?

 

[JohnT]

Wow that is great news JOhn but how do you insure there is no mold in those bottles when you refill them?

Berrycrush,

Yes, looks like that one.

Renee,

This does nothing to clean the inside of the bottle. For that, I break out the brushes and automatic dish washing gel.

 

[Rosa321]

Wow that is great news JOhn but how do you insure there is no mold in those bottles when you refill them?

Hi Renee, and welcome!

Even after labels are removed, before you can use a bottle you will need to disinfect it. The removal of the label alone doesn't make the bottle ready to fill with wine.

BUT..........Another reason I prefer the soak method is that is that is can sometimes remove pesky dried wine from the inside of a bottle. I had wine baking on the inside when I did the oven method hehe

Does that answer your question? I see you are new to the forum. Not sure how new you are to wine making. Feel free to ask more questions!!

 

[Billaban]

I'm getting ready to de-label and clean bottles for first use on first wine batch. What I remember from brewing beer many moons ago and having the same problem with beer bottles was that I used ammonia and water for a day or two soak and the labels literally fell off, i.e., no further effort required. Is my recollection correct? I also think I tried bleach and it didn't work very well. Back then we use to run bottles through the dishwasher (w/o soap) after sanitation. Oxyclean didn't exist 20+ years ago when were still bottling our homebrew.

I think that ammonia was the only thing available back then that actually broke down the label glue..... Are there other options?

 

[djrockinsteve]

I soak bottles in hot soapy (dawn) water. After a half hour I remove the top half of the label. That portion with printing and coating. Let bottles soak another half hour and then remove the glue portion.

Often a small plastic device will remove what's left. If there is any residue left a soft scrub pad will clean that up.

Rinse well and dry. Your labels will remove a lot easier. Some labels won't come off, for those I recycle.

Wade (last administrator) just used a scraper dry scraped.

 

[sour_grapes]

Labels vary a fair amount. What works for some won't work for others.

I put the bottles in an oven at 225 or so for 10 minutes. For many labels, this allows you to peel it off easily, leaving just a bit of glue residue behind. To remove this residue, and to treat any bottles where the label did not come off, I soak in PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) instead of ammonia, but it is the same chemical reaction (saponification) being induced in both cases.

Lots of old threads on this to give you a few ideas. Here is one: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f83/re-using-bottles-removing-labels-7445/

 

[Sage]

Just did 100 grungy bottles. I used the soak over night method.

But..... I cleaned the inside first. I rinsed, then put a good handful of BB's and 2-3 oz of no rinse cleaner in the bottle. I shook the bottle and swirled the BB's to clean any left over wine and in a couple of cases some mold. I just put a funnel in the next bottle and dumped the contents from the one being cleaned into the next in line. Rinsed the bottle and did a good visual inspection with a bright light. Any residual got a second treatment. I used the same solution for 2-10 bottles depending on how clean they were at the start. If it was clean after the rinse it got 3-4 oz of no rinse again and swirled and let sit while the next bottle was treated.

After the inside was clean they were filled with clean water and submerged to just above the label soak them off.

 

[Angelina]

I have been going with purchasing new bottles for quite some time now. The number of bottles I need per year makes recycling far too labor intensive. My local sells brand new bottles for around $10 per case.

That being said, there was a time when I recycled and I have found the perfect way to remove labels, glue and all!

Get yourself a 1600psi pressure washer. A small electric model is perfect. I built a "cradle" out of chicken wire that holds each bottle as I blast them. I purchased mine at Lowes for about $100.00.

It worked great! Labels just peel off even when the bottles have not been soaked. Works real well against those stubborn plastic labels that have been applied with rubber cement!

I found that I could de-label a whole case in under 10 minutes with not a single bottle broken.

Hey John, could you tell my more about this chicken wire cradle? I would like to try this method without launching bottles a 100 yards

 

[JohnT]

You bend the wine into a 1/2 circle and tack it to a wood frame.