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i have a bunch of wine bottles that i need to de lable. anybody with a greatest new way to do thar? i am going to try the 'self cleaning oven' tm method. ie.. heat in ventellated kiln to 1000f and hope all turns to easily removed ash. we will see. rosanna

there's a product called Label Lifter that works pretty darn good.
http://winemerchantraleigh.com/accessor ... -lift.html

You can probably search for "Label Lifter" and find comparable prices.

I fill 5 gallon pails with warm water and some ammonia. As a general rule, that seems to work the best for us without making it into a big production.

Guy

GuyKass wrote:I fill 5 gallon pails with warm water and some ammonia. As a general rule, that seems to work the best for us without making it into a big production.

Guy

So, does the label come off in one piece so you can reuse it?

If European wine: hot water and ammonia to dissolve the mucilage
If American wine: heat gun to melt the glue
This is not current information, but is was verified when collected.

Generally yes. As long as it was a gummed label. The new pressure sensitive labels are murder no matter what.

I run the bottles through the dishwasher on the hottest water setting, and most of the labels come off. I soak whatever remains in acetone (I've got a lot of it lying around). Seems to work, but the labels of course are history.

My mom used to boil jars on the stove in soapy water, just let them simmer on low heat for an hour or two and keep on putting in new water when it gets low.

well i have some bottles in the scutt. took off any easy to remove stuff like the 'metal' sealing stuff at the tops and peeled off the plastic labels. left the glue behind and did nothing with the paper labels. got it on 300f / hr to 1000f with a 20 min hold then off. bottles upright on shelf in the middle of kiln. envriovent is on. hopefully this will be my self cleaning grand new thing for the year. ps. happy newyeareveeve rosanna

rosanna gusler wrote:well i have some bottles in the scutt. took off any easy to remove stuff like the 'metal' sealing stuff at the tops and peeled off the plastic labels. left the glue behind and did nothing with the paper labels. got it on 300f / hr to 1000f with a 20 min hold then off. bottles upright on shelf in the middle of kiln. envriovent is on. hopefully this will be my self cleaning grand new thing for the year. ps. happy newyeareveeve rosanna

I'm a skeptic. I think dirty glass in, dirty glass out, but maybe stopping at 1000 will not result in permanent damage?

I have used goo gone of denatured alcohol to remove plastic labels and their leftover glue. Works OK.

Andy T:
The old paper labels come off with water soak and the tiniest bit of (any cheap) soap. they are reusable.

I soak the paper part of the label off then get the gummy stuff off with Simple Green cleaner. it does very well. It takes a bit of scrubbing but comes right off.

worked like a charm. took out bottles. vacumed off the shelf n bottles. one wipe with a damp paper towell and distilled water and voila. sparkeling clean bottles inside and out. stinky, yes. i would not do this with out an envriovent. i call this a success. rosanna

I have 2 methods.

1. Generous scoop of Oxyclean in a 5 gallon bucket. I place 5-6 bottles in bucket, let soak overnight. Many of the labels float off. The stubborn ones, I just scrape off with plastic scraper.
2. Apply heat gun to surface of label for about a minute. Peel label off. Label is preserved.

As I work with more wine bottles, I have found the ones that work well in Oxy, and the ones that work well with heat, and remove them accordingly.

i too have used various soak and go methods. slimy and time consuming. i have 18 lg bottles in the scutt ready to go now. we will see what a fuller sized test does. this is not for everybody but if one has the right set up man how easy and cheap.. i have a couple hundred bottles that need to go from 'that bottle pile' to 'raw materials' . after cleaning i can cut them down and box them up . i am developing some recycled glass production items so this method makes it dooable time/$ wise. rosanna

There is the potential of reduced kiln element life buy burning out materials in a kiln.
Kanthal A1 elements are pretty much permanent so long as you don't do burnouts which removes the coating that develops on the elements and prolongs their life.
At the very least, try doing a regular non burn out firing between every burn out firing so that the Kanthal, in theory, has a chance to replenish/repair its coating.
How much time and effort is really saved if you have to replace your elements?

dunno kevin. the envriovent keeps a good air flow and the actual burn out is of pretty small amounts of paper at low temps. probably only smokey between 451f and 700 ish so one hour. less as i tweak the schedule to go faster. i have tried all sorts of soaking/scraping/chemical cleaning protocalls and i can see that this is the only cost effective (time/elec ) way that i can see me as doing that. rosanna

The envirovent would certainly reduce the impact on the elements but for those who are thinking of this without one, it would be something to consider.
What do your neighbours think of the stinky firing or, don't you have any?

Pressure sensitive labels can be removed by Pouring a small amount of natural oil-based adhesive remover, such as one containing orange oil, rub it with a cloth and the adhisive will ball up.

For chemical based pour a small amount of an acetone-containing solvent on a cloth lay it on and let sit 5 min.
This (of course ) would be more time consuming

Kevin Midgley wrote:The envirovent would certainly reduce the impact on the elements but for those who are thinking of this without one, it would be something to consider.
What do your neighbours think of the stinky firing or, don't you have any?

I am lucky to live in a place where burning stuff is ok. Rosanna

Any advice for bottles that are silk screened? Most of the beer bottles I buy now have silk screened labels, barcodes, ect. I would like to turn them into cullet for beads.

Thank you.

Elaine