best label removal techniques

[zman]

are indeed the worst labels to have to peel off. I did hot soap and water, and I did Oxyclean, several times. It was still the biggest PITA to get em all off. Oxyclean is great for the other labels. No Magic Hat in Colorado..

 

[dudasaj]

Personally I have had excellent luck with Oxyclean. I use the Oxyclean without bleach. It has the green lid. I use that for nearly all cleaning as well. Wallmart for under 7.00 gets labels off and bottles clean. Just soak the bottles in a tub of water and oxyclean come back an hour later, and labels literally fload off the bottle....

NEVER MIX OXYCLEAN AND BLEACH. IT MAKES CHLORINE GAS.... IT CAN KILL YOU.

 

[darkestdays]

This works really well IMO, but it's because of my "special tool."

1. I fill one of my sinks with scalding (or fairly close) hot water and a tiny bit of dish soap. You do not want tons of bubbles. The water is straight from my tap. Letting the bottles sit in the soapy water also cleans the inside. I guess you could use oxiclean too, but I have not tried that yet. I will though.

2. Let, say, 10 or so bottles, however many your sink will hold as long as they are submerged, soak in the hot soapy water for about 10-20 min.

3. Grab your "special tool." In this case, it's one of the scraper/ scrubber tools that you use to clean your grill with. It works superbly in every way. It's like it was made for scrubbing labels off of bottles! Just scrape the label off (it should be pretty easy if the water was hot enough), and run the bottle under a tiny stream of hot tap water. While the bottle is under the tap water, use the scrubbing part of the tool to get the glue off. Just rotate the bottle as you are scrubbing. I usually do the neck first, and then the body of the bottle.

4. After removing the label, set the bottle off to the side. When all the bottles in your sink have been scrubbed and the sink is empty (besides the water), fill it back up with any bottles that need the labels removed. Rinse out the bottles that have been scrubbed with hot/ warm water. If you have a bottle washer, then I would recommend using it.

5. After I rinse the bottles, I usually fill the dish washer until it is full. I set it on light wash with the steam drying. Do not use dishwasher soap. I then store the bottles, and wash/ sanitize them before use.

If you're wondering, the grill scraper I have is something like this. Mine is a little better, but I got it at the local meijer's for less than ten dollars. Just make sure it has a scraper on the front and a metal brush on the other side. I can usually do about 40-60 bottles and hour using this method, and it also removes the glue, and cleans the inside of the bottles. You just have to wait for the dishwasher to free up. That's when I take a break.

Also, try to get the bottles in the hot water as quick as you can. If you take some bottles out, replace them, so you don't have to wait for them to soak longer in the water. Replace the water if it gets cold or ineffective.

Hope this helps!

 

[user 30639]

Another +1 for the Oxyclean method. I had about 15 bottles I needed to get the labels off. I threw them in a bucket of hot water, added some Oxyclean, and a couple hours later all the labels had floated to the top.

 

[anderj]

This works really well IMO, but it's because of my "special tool."

1. I fill one of my sinks with scalding (or fairly close) hot water and a tiny bit of dish soap. You do not want tons of bubbles. The water is straight from my tap. Letting the bottles sit in the soapy water also cleans the inside. I guess you could use oxiclean too, but I have not tried that yet. I will though.

2. Let, say, 10 or so bottles, however many your sink will hold as long as they are submerged, soak in the hot soapy water for about 10-20 min.

3. Grab your "special tool." In this case, it's one of the scraper/ scrubber tools that you use to clean your grill with. It works superbly in every way. It's like it was made for scrubbing labels off of bottles! Just scrape the label off (it should be pretty easy if the water was hot enough), and run the bottle under a tiny stream of hot tap water. While the bottle is under the tap water, use the scrubbing part of the tool to get the glue off. Just rotate the bottle as you are scrubbing. I usually do the neck first, and then the body of the bottle.

4. After removing the label, set the bottle off to the side. When all the bottles in your sink have been scrubbed and the sink is empty (besides the water), fill it back up with any bottles that need the labels removed. Rinse out the bottles that have been scrubbed with hot/ warm water. If you have a bottle washer, then I would recommend using it.

5. After I rinse the bottles, I usually fill the dish washer until it is full. I set it on light wash with the steam drying. Do not use dishwasher soap. I then store the bottles, and wash/ sanitize them before use.

If you're wondering, the grill scraper I have is something like this. Mine is a little better, but I got it at the local meijer's for less than ten dollars. Just make sure it has a scraper on the front and a metal brush on the other side. I can usually do about 40-60 bottles and hour using this method, and it also removes the glue, and cleans the inside of the bottles. You just have to wait for the dishwasher to free up. That's when I take a break.

Also, try to get the bottles in the hot water as quick as you can. If you take some bottles out, replace them, so you don't have to wait for them to soak longer in the water. Replace the water if it gets cold or ineffective.

Hope this helps!

So much work, just use the oxyclean