Strongest chemical to dissolve vinyl adhesive?

[Acuity31]

Long story short I'm stripping off DC fix from the kitchen worktop. I'm convinced the previous owner sprayed adhesive down and then stuck the DC fix on because the counter is absolutely covered in sticky, yellowy adhesive residue. On all the videos I've seen the DC fix just pulls off leaving nothing behind. Whereas I have to heat the fix up with a hairdryer and peel it off and even then it comes off in small chunks, leaving behind a thick layer of residue.

Anyway so far I've tried:

Goo Gone. Helps loosen up the glue a bit but still requires sliding away at it with a stanley blade.
Surfex HD at 40% - did nothing
WD40 - did nothing
Upol panel wipe - about as good as Goo Gone
Furniture polish - nothing
Fairy liquid - nothing

Finally I tried MSV Multisolve which works the best but again, the adhesive still needs several passes with a blade or tile scraper to come off completely.

My next plan is acetone. Would that be safe on your typical laminate kitchen top? Not sure what else to try other than petrol lol

[Fastpedeller]

Maybe no help to you but.......
Bought some B&Q glass shelves.
Sticky labels on them, I tried everything I had, water, white spirit, paraffin, methylated spirits, acetone. I had to cut them off with a razor blade and pick off the remaining adhesive using duct tape.
It took twice the time to remove the labels as it took to drill and fix the shelves to the wall.

[ukwill]

This works wonders

https://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product/koch-chemie...

[JoshSm]

Acuity31 said:

My next plan is acetone. Would that be safe on your typical laminate kitchen top? Not sure what else to try other than petrol lol

Might work, probably won't hurt the laminate. Best test it. If you haven't got some buy a can of foam gun cleaner as that's just acetone.

Have you tried IPA yet? The alcohol not the beer.

Xylene can be fun, I got a can from Lidl on the off-chance I needed something potent.

[Regbuser]

MEK > https://www.sprayster.com/product/maston-mek-methy...

[Acuity31]

JoshSm said:

Might work, probably won't hurt the laminate. Best test it. If you haven't got some buy a can of foam gun cleaner as that's just acetone.

Have you tried IPA yet? The alcohol not the beer.

Xylene can be fun, I got a can from Lidl on the off-chance I needed something potent.

ChatGPT said IPA is the safest yet most effective thing on laminate so i'll try that next. It says acetone will dull the laminate but i may give it a try in an area which will be hidden by a microwave anyway. I know she must have used spray adhesive because on the smaller wood panels it peeled clean off, guess she figured she didn't need more stick on those areas

[RGG]

Probably acetone - as long as it doesn't damage the surface - check an obscure section first

[21TonyK]

Diluted IPA recommended here...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

(I use IPA for cleaning almost everything)

[zsdom]

Autosmart Tardis tar & glue remover

[Simpo Two]

You could try cellulose thinners - but open all the doors and windows as the fumes are really bad.

[Belle427]

Loctite do some aerosol adhesive and gasket removers which are very good, if all else fails then worth a look.

[Rusty Old-Banger]

It's not safe but petrol on a rag works better than acetone at getting residue off IME

[Byker28i]

21TonyK said:

Diluted IPA recommended here...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

(I use IPA for cleaning almost everything)

I was surprised to see this for sale at my local hardware shop.
For sticky labels I use the orange smelling sticky label removing spray Ambersil 31629 200ml Label & Adhesive Remover

or this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/zep-sticky-stuff-remove...

[Peanut Gallery]

Admit mine is based on sticky labels, but I found white spirits works, - leaves an oily residue which I then go over with methalated spirits.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-white-spiri...

[Fatboy]

White spirit is worth a try (much less likely to damage the laminate than acetone), will often soften it up so it wipes off easily...

[Plus4Four#]

I have a few solvents that have come in handy. The most useful are white spirit, meths, acetone, brake cleaner, Evostick cleaner. The rest include Xylene ( Hammerite cleaning but beware the fumes,,,,) plus others from specific jobs. Cellullose thinners, commercial printer cleaner. Bilt Humber in a rust cleaning/protection kit. Just remembered I used to have a small bottle of pure ethanol. Borrowed from work where we used it to clean machines where nothing else would be allowed. I had a licence from HMRC to buy it in.
Small tests done is a wise precaution.

Edited by Plus4Four# on Wednesday 4th February 15:36

[Acuity31]

Today I tried IPA and white spirit. To entertain myself I put them head to head on separate sections. Both performed well but I think white spirit had the slight edge. Neither did any damage. But also neither softened the adhesive to the point where I could simply wipe it clean. I basically had to use a plastic scraper (looks a bit like a Stanley window scraper but with plastic blades) which made the adhesive form into a worm shape, then wipe it up with kitchen roll.
The whole thing has been a massive ball ache. The crap vinyl wrap has battled me the whole time, often snapping into small pieces. The adhesive if not wiped up while it's still suspended in solvent solution will happily dry back onto the surface.
I'm about 75% of the way there though.

[allegro]

it's times like this I miss having trichloroethylene to hand. yeah yeah it's bad stuff but it worked wonders on everything

[ukwill]

The thing I linked to works. A friend who owns a print plant uses it commercially (contracts include billboards etc). He put me on to it after I was moaning about caked on pine tree sap that nothing would touch, apart from acetone. But that requires a mop after. This stuff doesn’t.

[drgoatboy]

My favourite for this sort of job is tar remover, autoglymm do one as do most other detailing brands. Seems to work better than anything else I found but you have tried some pretty serious options already so might be a bad suggestion