The auto industry is demanding more ductile high-strength steel grades to build lighter and stronger car bodies. The hot-dip galvanizing problems of these new steel grades are creating a demand for an improved method to control zinc wettability. The simplest way to improve zinc wettability on industrial hot-dip galvanizing lines is to increase the strip immersion temperature at zinc bath entry for enhancing the aluminothermic reaction. However, this practice increases the reactivity due to overheating the zinc in the snout which induces the formation of brittle Fe-Zn compounds at the strip/coating interface with the formation of higher amounts of dross in the zinc bath and snout contamination. Thus, this simple practice can only be utilized for short production periods of one to two hours without deteriorating coating quality. This problem has been solved by employing a technique that allows the use of a higher and attuned strip immersion temperature at zinc bath entry while still maintaining a constantly low zinc bath temperature. This has been proven to provide the solution for both the improved wettability and a significant reduction in the amounts of dross in the zinc bath.