I'm Considering Nitrogen vs Air Again

[blingo]

Colour coding of cylinders for a modern shop in general is the most critical. Can't have LiquiMoly's "Leichtbau Reifenfüllgas" with advanced chemistry filled in just some tires of a vehicle and 80 or 95% Nitrogen in others at the same time. Alternative fills without approvals are probably even illegal for uses other than far from public roads youtube.com/watch?v=LRMDTzPIXfo#t=1m44s

 

[pcoxe]

Oxygen probably doesn't leak out any faster, it just gets absorbed by the oxidation of the tire rubber. Nitrogen acts somewhat like an inert gas and doesn't readily combine with rubber.

 

[CKN]

in other words, i'm happy with our local Costco

You two can wait for 2 hours for a rotation.......

 

[miden851]

You two can wait for 2 hours for a rotation.......

not with an appointment in mid of the week; mostly an hour max; in my area i got nothing to say bad about Costco and their tire department

 

[paulswagelock]

If tires leak air but not nitrogen, then we have invented a very inexpensive gas separator. Fill it with air, then according to this idea, everything but nitrogen will leak out, top of with air again, everything but nitrogen will leak out. At this point you are 90+% nitrogen for free.....

 

[Imp4]

Initial fill: 78%
2nf fill: 95.2%
3rd fill: 98.9%
All for free.

And I'm supposed to pay extra for the little green caps?????

 

[The motor guy]

Does nobody add air when it gets colder out?

That's the only time I add air. Load range e tires don't really leak much.

 

[Retirednow]

used nitrogen for some two decades and it’s free with new tyres and adjustments for the life of the tyres. .

 

[mightymousetech]

honestly I don't know the details, and I trust Costco; Nitrogen they put in tires has no reacted to the outside temperature inversion, were stable for so long

Impressive. Should take your tires to NASA so they can analyze your tires as you seem to have found a gas that does not follow the ideal gas laws.

 

[tshephard]

Costco covers their tires with nitrogen; nothing bad to say about nitrogen, very stable

And will fill and check any tires.

 

[HowAboutThis]

Hello,

When the tires on one of my previous cars became over 5 years old, I had to add air to them more often than I wanted to because it slowly leaked. Then I was suggested to use nitrogen and it helped a lot. I only needed to get them topped off 2x a year after a while, with nitrogen. Then I got rid of that car and got a car that I put a new set of tires on, and the tech told me that air will work just fine on these tires and it did.
But then I traded that car also and the car I have now has Goodyear Assurance tires that have maybe 30k miles left on them. I put 40 PSI in them and I noticed the other day that after about 3 months, I now have 36 PSI when the tires are warmed up after driving the car. I seemed to lose about 8 PSI. So again, I'm thinking of running nitrogen so it will hold the PSI for longer periods of time. I only drive the car about 4k miles a year, so these tires could last me 7 years. It will cost me about $20 + tax for nitrogen in 4 tires, with free top offs if needed. Or maybe the tires won't leak much more and will stay in the mid 30s PSI.
Any thoughts on this without condemning me for using nitrogen? It seems that older tires don't hold the PSI like new tires do, and I only drive 4k miles +/- a year so I tend to have older tires on my cars lately. I think it will be well worth the $22 to get it and have more stable PSI in the next 5+ years on these tires.

Air is about 75-80% nitrogen

 

[The Critic]

You two can wait for 2 hours for a rotation.......

They are shockingly quick as long as you have an appointment and do a mid-week appointment. On my last paid rotate/balance appointment, I think I was in and out in under 30 min.

 

[Gimpy1]

Dude skip the Nitrogen fills, thats so last week. The new way is to fill them with Helium, it makes your car lighter and gives you better gas mileage.

 

[artbuc]

Oxygen probably doesn't leak out any faster, it just gets absorbed by the oxidation of the tire rubber. Nitrogen acts somewhat like an inert gas and doesn't readily combine with rubber.

Actually it does leak out faster, about 3-4 times faster due to its smaller kinetic diameter.

 

[Tirerescue]

one key can be moisture in the air being compressed. a lot of places do not have air dryer inline on their compressor. more moisture...the higher the affect of ambient temperature will have on the pressure. Nitrogen systems have a dryer as well as high end air systems. go to a place connected to a body shop, they have to have dry air to paint. see if that achieves the same performance that you got from nitrogen.

 

[Traction]

I've owned a N2 generator since 2005, and I will never fill any of my 11 sets of tires, or the thousands of other tires I've filled with wet compressed air. Might not be much of a difference, but it is better no matter how you slice it. Oxygen has zero benefit when it come to tires, inside, or out.

 

[CR94]

Initial fill: 78%
2nf fill: 95.2%
3rd fill: 98.9%
All for free.

Only if all the oxygen magically vanishes between fills.
That's impossible, because the equilibrium vapor pressure of oxygen in the tire will never fall below that in ambient air, roughly 3 psi. Therefore, no matter how many times you add air, or how long you wait, outward permeation of oxygen will never raise the percentage of nitrogen above about 92% , assuming typical car tire pressure.

 

[Imp4]

Only if all the oxygen magically vanishes between fills.
That's impossible, because the equilibrium vapor pressure of oxygen in the tire will never fall below that in ambient air, roughly 3 psi. Therefore, no matter how many times you add air, or how long you wait, outward permeation of oxygen will never raise the percentage of nitrogen above about 92% , assuming typical car tire pressure.

Sweet.

 

[George Bynum]

I've owned a N2 generator since 2005, and I will never fill any of my 11 sets of tires, ...

I'm curious of the details on your N2 generator. What brand is it? How pure is the N2? What is the moisture content? Do you feel that water or O2 is the more significant a problem with "nasty" compressed air?

 

[Retirednow]

Air is 78% nitrogen. Unless you put a vacuum on your tires before filling with nitrogen, you don't have a pure mix of nitrogen.

I'm not going to pay for nitrogen fills.

Free in most tyre shops. We usually use Costco