Nitrogen

Recently, when I had my new rims redrilled and machined, the shop inflated my tires with nitrogen when they mounted them. Are there any real advantages to nitrogen filled tires or is it just another gimmick

The way they promote it, it's a gimmick imo. They'll say tire pressures remain more consistent. I don't think it's that much of a difference for what they charge for N. So no real performance advantages.

But it's actually not a bad idea when you consider there won't be any moisture pumped into the tires to corrode the wheels. And that's a big problem with our stock chrome alloy wheels. A properly maintained air tank shouldn't have much water in the tank, but I've seen some shop air lines that spray water out when filling a tire, and that's bad news. Using N you have zero chance of that happening, so it's good insurance, imo.

AA wrote:

The way they promote it, it's a gimmick imo. They'll say tire pressures remain more consistent. I don't think it's that much of a difference for what they charge for N. So no real performance advantages.

Sounds similar to an older idea in paintball markers. They converted from CO2 to compressed air, and nitrogen filled systems. The benefits were, no moisture in your system and, constant and improved pressure levels. As far as the I can say for the paintball application everything thing they claimed of the nitrogen was true, even more impressive than the compressed air. I can't speak for the tire industry aspect of this but I can only assume the nitrogen would have very similar if not the same affect on pressures in the tire. Maybe something worth trying.

I'd think it would make a much bigger difference with compressed air tanks because of the much higher pressures in very small volumes. I could be wrong though.

There's a Popular Mechanics article that talks about racing teams using it because they need to adjust individual tire pressures to within .5 PSI. A friend of mine who used work for a racing pit crew said they could dial in to .1 PSI, and that was some years ago. For us, their isn't really a need for that level of precision, but changes in pressures will come at high speeds, when the tires heat up, or after using the brakes hard for some time, heating the wheels. I measured tire pressures once after rolling down a mountain in the Carolinas, getting on the brakes a lot. I saw a ~5ºF increase due to the heat. Is that a big deal? It wasn't to me. I let some air out and was low when I got home.

Tirerack says you'll also see 1 PSI change for every 10ºF ambient temp change when tires are filled with air.

In case anyone is interested.........

I agree with GM's stance, however when filling with nitrogen they are supposed to use the green valve stem caps. This is supposed to prevent accidental mixing with atmospheric air.

Fwiw, I bought a new bike a couple years ago, which came with nitrogen in the tires. It leaked out within a year, so now they get filled with air.

Thanks for the info and opinions. You kinda reaffirmed what I was thinking. This is a very high end shop that caters to a lot of pro sports stars in the Pheonix area. All they do is nitrogen inflation on their tires and they use a Hunter Road Force 9700 Balancer (whatever that is). Really a nice setup they have. They have custom wheels in "blanks" (No stud holes). They drill them and machine them to fit the vehicle. Here is the link showing how the shop promotes the supposed benefits of NITROGEN INFLATION :http://www.wheelspecialists.com/wheel/brand/94/20/nitrogen-wheels-rims

I agree with AA on this one. Hell if it was free or only a couple quarters I might go for it but for $s per tire forget it. And if you have a small leak it would cost a fortune to keep refilling. Plus from what I've read you have to have about 95% nitrogen or higher, which is medical grade. I have access to nitrogen thru work and was gonna try to use it to fill my tires but I found that nitrogen and air do not use the same connectors so I was unable to fit the air fill valve to the nitrogen tank without cobbling together a bunch of adapters. Not worth the effort.

If I could inflate cheaply with nitrogen in my own garage, I'd consider going with it. I'm sure not making a special trip across town to air up a low tire.

I use 78% nitrogen, for free.

78% Nitrogen is just a waste of Nitrogen lol. It has to be like 100% to even "benefit" from.

Atmospheric air is composed of 78% nitrogen.

Apparently I didn't catch that one...........

There is no benefit to a street driven vehicle in using nitrogen. If you do any kind of racing, it will hold a more consistent pressure. If you have a leak, it doesn't matter if you have air or N, it's going to leak. Don't let them suck your money away for a nitrogen fill. If it's free, why not. But remember in a shop where it's "free", it's really built into their shop labor cost somewhere.