Is there a 'magic' solution for dissolving labels on glassware?

[ChairMan]

In news:518beb01$0$47026$c3e8da3$ [e-mail], EXT belched:

naptha/lighter fluid will remove hot glue

[Janet Wilder]

Use a hair dryer to blow hot air onto the label. This will loosen the glue so you can peel it off. If there is any glue residue, use Goo Gone.

Long time ago my first husband worked for a discount shoe store chain that put labels on the sole of the shoes. They had those 'x' cuts and were almost impossible to remove. Someone told him about the hair dryer method and I've used it successfully ever since.

[Nancy Young]

Like some DIY show I watched where the guy was struggling to get up a linoleum floor. I thought he needed a heat gun but his friend suggested a hair dryer. That actually worked.

Long ago my ex gave his brother some pots, they had a label on each one that wouldn't budge. While he was heating something up on the stove, I picked at the label and it came off effortlessly. It was good for a laugh at the time, but I learned that heat was a good tool to release glue.

nancy

[Julie Bove]

Goo Gone.

[Danny D]

So many people recommended this stuff, I had to look it up, via the MSDS:

It appears to be roughly 95% petroleum distillates, and then from 1 to 10% Tripropylene glycol methyl ether.

Googling for what "petroleum distillates" are, Wikipedia wasn't all that helpful:

Googling some more, it looks like it's the same as mineral spirits:

So, I should be able to buy some at the hardware store.

[The Daring Dufas]

I believe the OP is writing about glass jars but I like the plastic unbreakable peanut butter jars for hardware because they can get dropped and tossed around the van without glass and parts flying. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned WD-40. ^_^

TDD

[Nancy2]

You could do what smart people do ... Go to your local hardware store and get some of that stuff they sell to remove sticky label residue. But I suppose that is too logical.

N.

[Paul M. Cook]

Goof Off is a product that works great.

I also just wash in the dishwasher. It loosens them up and they usually fall off on their own.

[hrhofmann]

Scratch the surface, and moisten with a naptha-soaked rag (in a well- ventilated area).

[Danny D]

Actually, my mistake for changing jars in the middle of the thread!

I started with glass, but they were so easy to remove the labels I then moved on to the muuuuch-harder-to-remove plastics vitamin jars with paper glued on labels.

The plastic vitamin jars have been soaking in the recommended solutions for the past five or six hours or so:

1. Oil (doesn't look good so far)
2. Soap (looks pretty good)
3. Alcohol (seems the same as the control)
4. Water (the control)

Also I have a peanut-butter jar soaking in water, but, it appears to have a plastic label, and not paper like the vitamin jars - so - it's an anomaly.

I'll report back tomorrow ...

[Polly Esther]

"zxcvbob" Peanut butter jars? Why didn't you say so! (those are my favorite jars

Storing bullets? I had no idea. I'll give one to Mr. Esther. Peanut butter jars are also fun for a toddler just learning how to open things. A ping-pong ball ( or a frog) inside a peanut butter jar makes learning to twist a lid big fun.

[nestork]

Let me save you some time:

Mineral Spirits (also called "paint thinner", "solvent" and "Varsol") will dissolve the glue holding MOST labels on jars. What I do is simply scrape the impermeable surface paper off, and then apply mineral spirits with an eye dropper to the porous paper beneath, put the jar with the wet label in a plastic bag wrapped tightly around the jar (so the mineral spirits doesn't evaporate) and allow the mineral spirits to penetrate through the porous paper and dissolve the glue holding the paper on to the glass. After 5 or 10 minutes, remove the jar and peel the paper off with a razor blade or sharp knife. The paper will come off easily, but you just need something sharp to get under it and lift it off the glass.

On some jars, mineral spirits is very slow to work, and I expect that's because they use a different glue because of the temperature of the stuff originally put in the jars. Jam is jarred when it's hot because it's too viscous to pump when it's cold, and so jam will usually be put in glass jars that can stand the heat better.

In those cases, I use lacquer thinner or acetone. Lacquer thinner is mostly toluene (it's typically 70 to 80 % toluene), so if you find toluene for sale anywhere, you can use that instead of lacquer thinner. Every paint store will sell lacquer thinner.

Acetone is the chemical found most commonly in women's nail polish remover. Acetone is very fast to evaporate, so a similar solvent called "amyl acetate" will often be added to the nail polish remover because amyl acetate evaporates more slowly. Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) is acetone's closest chemical cousin, and it evaporates a little more slowly than acetone, so if acetine works, then MEK should not only work, but work better because of it's slower evaporation rate.

The advantage in using mineral spirits, lacquer thinner and acetone/MEK over dish detergent and cooking oil is that every one of the former will all evaporate completely without leaving any residue, whereas the latter won't evaporate at all. That is, even if cooking oil dissolves the glue holding the label on, you then still need to use something else to remove the cooking oil. The benefit of dish washing detergent is that it can be washed off with water, albeit plenty of water to remove all of it.

So, if it wuz me, I would save a step and just use a solvent that evaporates completely, thereby preventing your having to use something else to remove your label remover.

[Broadback]

The problem with that is there is a tendency for the paper to clog the dish washer. Try placing the item in the freezer for a while, lots of labels then peel of whole and with ease.

[The Real Bev]

As an aside, octopi have learned to open screw-top jars.

[ViLco]

What a coincidence, I use the seeds oil I have on hand which is always peanut oil

[G. Morgan]

"Goo Gone", or charcoal fluid - lighter fluid.

[Robert]

Yes, but the ping pong balls float to the top of the ocean, and they become sad.....

[TimR]

Most of the time, soap and water is plenty.

When that doesn't work, I go to Goo-Gone.

When that fails, carb cleaner has always worked.

[Melba's Jammin']

I've heard of using peanut butter. I use Goof-Off.