Is This A Lot Of Hot Air?

[Ray D]

Sometimes I think I must have been asleep for a while. Never heard of this before! Check it out - - -

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206439,00.html

Anybody know anything about Nitrogen? Anybody use it?

Ray D

 

[King]

Air (as in atmosphere) is 78% nitrogen.  I've seen nitrogen advertised at a Firestone/Bridgestone tire center in VA.
I can't imagine there would be any measurable improvement.  The add claimed temperature/pressure stability, but i expect that would only be the case if there were a lot of water in the air.  (Nitrogen is usually sold as "dry" nitrogen, that is, no other gasses included).

 

[Clay L]

Certainly the claims regarding nitrogen not changing pressure in response to temperature changes is a bunch of crap.
If this guy Bourque really was an engineer he would know that nitrogen is subject to the ideal gas law just as air is.
The only possible benefit I can see is that the inside of the tire might deteriorate less. However I think most tires deteriorate much more from the loss of plasticisers, ozone damage, and UV damage than from internal damage due to oxidation.

 

[woodartist]

Anyone for Helium?

 

[Karl]

Clay,

I agree - the coeff. of expansion and specific heat is so close between nitrogen and air as to be almost negligible. Racers however, especially those with limited funds, will use nitrogen to minimize the 'heat cycle' aging effects of the oxygen in the air. To that claim about 1-1.5 mpg increase, I say BLECH! Ain't gonna happen.

 

[Ray D]

After seeing that on FOX News, then I saw it on NBC, just a little while ago. Both promoted it as being especially good for tire monitoring systems. ???

I see that it isn't selling well, here!

Ray D

 

[woodartist]

Good marketing and might be a good short term investment

 

[Ron]

Anyone for Helium?

Lets see with all your tires filled with helium the load would be lighter thus improving gas mileage.  Makes about as much since as improving mileage using nitrogen.  Think its all hogwash ??? ???

 

[John From Detroit]

One tihng to keep in mind is that Fox news is often refered to as Faux (Homonym) news.  Their accuracy rating is not good.

This article seems to underscore that "Faux" image, that is to say it's faction (Fact and fiction mixed)

There does indeed seem to be some benefit from using either CO2 or Nitrogen to inflate tires, or should I say some slight benefit.  I've been argued with on this (By someone who sounded good but missed a few factsl, oh well)  It is my understanding that the  bit about the nitrogen molicule being a bit less prone to "Seepage" is true.  Tires go flat, that is what they do, if you don't believe me check your spare, odds are. it's flat.  Not out in the sun so it's not sun damaged, not running over things so it's not punctured, but it's flat because the air has not leaked out, but seeped out right through the tire.

Some folks have tested air in tires and found the concentration of nitrogen increases from 78% on first fill to a higher number, this is because the smaller gasses seep out faster

So what does this mean.. Well, instead of checking pressure every week, you can perhaps go 8 days.

The fiction part is "This is important with Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS)  I can not think of why, with a TPMS if your tire looses pressure, you are notified, quickly and if you carry spare air (I do) you fix it al;so quickly cause that )(*&_(*@&#$ beep  beep is annoying

 

[hleap]

Remember air is 78% Nitrogen and 20% Oxygen....not much difference actually.