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Originally Posted by Water Warrior
General info: Costco in Canada sell massive amounts of tires and uses nitrogen when installing them. Works for them and all their customers. Proven less leakage by replacing the smaller molecules with the larger nitrogen molecules.
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Have we had this discussion before on this forum?? :??:
So, what advantage am I theoretically supposed to gain if I have no "leakage" with plain air ??
I have a bike, two cars, a truck and a tractor. Except for the front tires on the tractor, which take some punishment....NONE of my vehicles require ANY air more than once a year and that is accomplished coincident with the seasonal adjustments for temperature. NONE. That has been typical of most of my tires over the years.
I know that you honestly believe that "nitrogen" is better somehow but I think you have been mislead. First plain air is about 78% nitrogen already. Of the remaining 22%, a significant portion of what is left has larger molecules than N.
Moreover, obtaining pure nitrogen is not a simple process; it is somewhat complicated and expensive. I have my doubts that cost conscious Costco or the many tire places in the US that claim it, REALLY go to the expense of getting or making "real" pure nitrogen.
The real advantage to the so-called nitrogen is that it is DRY; almost totally void of water vapor. Air that has lots of water vapor varies in pressure more than dry air. It also tends to make things rust.......like rims where they seal to a tubless tire.
I would like to find someone who really knows what these places actually use and call it nitrogen. Dry air is fairly easy to make and, being 78% nitrogen already, could be called nitrogen without really lying. I suspect that they actually have a dryer attached to the air compressor and that produces their "nitrogen".
Anyhow, to recap, I think it's mostly hype and certainly not worth paying extra for.
And yes, race teams use real dry nitrogen because they need to control their pressures to the tenth of a pound. Consumer vehicles have no such need.