Commercial glass bottle 'recycling'/cleaning - a question?

[Hopping_Mad]

As with most home brewers, when bottling my brew I like to re-use bottles from commercial drinks. My local rugby club keep filling a milk crate for me so I have a good regular supply.

Some are great to get the labels off, such as Magners and Adnams, as they use foil and/or paper labels which soak off easily. Quick once over with a sponge to get the glue off then they're done!

Some manufacturers (Crabbies for example) have started to use plasticised labels which leave a sticky residue when peeled off. I've tried scrubbing, scouring and nail varnish remover to no avail! Does anyone have any greater experience or better ideas as to how to get it off? I appreciate it's a bit anal as its inside that needs to be spotless but they are crappy to handle when they are sticky!

 

[Berk]

I've just had great success with some crabbies and similar bottles with oxi cleaner stuff. I had a batch of bottle that I'm pretty sure had new life forms in them, so I decided to try oxi stuff to get them clean. While doing that I figured I may as well do the rest of the bottles to make sure they were sparkling.

The crabbies were already peeled, but had the glue residue left. A 30 minute soak followed by a mild scrub with a wire scourer cleaned them up a treat.

There may be easier ways though, I've seen mention of lighter fluid and acetone too.

 

[desmosteve]

Done to death already, and then some
The search function - THBF's best kept secret :clap:

search.php?keywords=label+removal&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

 

[Hopping_Mad]

Done to death already, and then some
The search function - THBF's best kept secret :clap:

search.php?keywords=label+removal&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Thank you for your patience....

...and for pointing out the 'search' function at the bottom of the threads which I shall use in future instead of asking dumb ass 'newbie' questions!

 

[graysalchemy]

Like you I have a bar that collects bottles for me. I have over 500 now so i can be selective and pass on those I don't want to other forum members. However if you pel off the label, then rubbing it with a bit of veg oil works. However I find a quick waft with a heat gun softens the glue and quite often it comes off with out leaving any residue.

desmosteve we have all been nubes at some point and yes the search facility is a good idea to use, but this forum is all about helping one another not putting people down for asking a question.

 

[Berk]

Little update, I was clearing the labels off some wine bottles after I did the beer bottles. The water was fresh, but cooler and I had a harder time of removing the gunk. On a couple of really stubborn bottles I ended up using lighter fluid, which worked much better, but still left the bottles tacky.