Removing stickers from cornie kegs

I've been building my inventory of cornies and some used kegs I have purchased need lots of work.

I have been able to remove stickers on the outside of the kegs using a heat gun that works great. However, there is usually a sticky goo that remains on the keg after removal.

I have tried removing the goo with hot soopie water and an abrasive sponge - no luck. I also tried golf grip removal solvent (mineral spirts) - no luck.

How is the best way to get the sticky goo off the keg?

Thx.

I use a razer blade.

Try some lacquer thinner (acetone). It's worked well for me.

This works well on sticker glue:

OK - acetone I have some at home. It is really strong, so I need to wear gloves; right?

robertbartsch said:

OK - acetone I have some at home. It is really strong, so I need to wear gloves; right?

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I use it without gloves, but I would not recommend that to someone else. It's essentially the same stuff that's in nail polish remover.

I think a combination of acetone and starsan exposure adds "hand character" over time. If you add a good dose of metal grinding and ditch digging without wearing gloves, you can stop using oven mitts after a while too. ;-)

Bobby_M said:

I think a combination of acetone and starsan exposure adds "hand character" over time. If you add a good dose of metal grinding and ditch digging without wearing gloves, you can stop using oven mitts after a while too. ;-)

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Expose your hands to Barkeeper's Friend followed by a long soak in a hot Oxyclean soltution if you really want to phuk up your hands properly. I've found that some girls like a guy's hands to be rough and some don't, so YMMV as usual.

I just filled my tub with water and dumped in 3 scoops of oxiclean. Let the kegs soak (I could fit two in at once) for a couple hours and the stickers pretty much fall off then a green scrubbing pad will take of any dirt/gunk/etc. I only had to do two but I would bet you could cycle through all your kegs in one go without changing the water.

Might be overkill for what you need but mine needed a cleaning both inside and out and came out in great shape.

Pure Citrus as mentioned above...or...GOO GONE. Always worked well for me.

I use Goof Off and a razor scraper.

ibrewit said:

I use Goof Off and a razor scraper.

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+1 to the Goof Off and razor blade.

TomSD said:

I just filled my tub with water and dumped in 3 scoops of oxiclean. Let the kegs soak (I could fit two in at once) for a couple hours and the stickers pretty much fall off then a green scrubbing pad will take of any dirt/gunk/etc. I only had to do two but I would bet you could cycle through all your kegs in one go without changing the water.

Might be overkill for what you need but mine needed a cleaning both inside and out and came out in great shape.

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That may work for some stickers, but if you have any of the plastic stickers intended to identify the owner, ie Coke, Pepsi, etc. or maybe the distributor, they are designed to be extremely difficult to remove and they are. A heat gun and a scraper work well to remove the sticker itself, but often much of the waterproof adhesive will remain. You can usually remove it either with an appropriate solvent. You can also buff it off, but that typically requires more time and effort than the solvent method.

Had Dr Pepper stickers (wrap around owner stickers) on both and after a couple hours they came right off. I just had to get a corner up with my nail or scraper and they came off in one smooth pull. Only needed to hit them with the green pad after that to get the edges where the dirt had built up.

Goo gone. If you can find a remover called "oops" it works really well too.

B