- Inflation with nitrogen – They use nitrogen which is supposed to keep pressure better than air with changing temperatures. It’s supposed to also stay inflated better. I don’t necessarily believe the hype but whatever. They also inflate to optimal pressures when they rotate and balance. WARNING: That’s why your tires have green inflation tube caps; you cannot put in regular air at the gas station!
This is just not correct.
1. Air is 80% nitrogen to start with.
2. The tire is not evacuated so nitrogen inflated tires are not 100% nitrogen to start with.
3. Nitrogen does none of the things claimed for it in normal applications.
4. Nitrogen may actually make the tires run hotter.
5. Racers use nitrogen for two reasons: A) It's guaranteed to be dry so when you are tuning the suspension to get that last 1/100th of a second reduction in lap time, the tires are consistent. B) At small tracks, there is often not electricity so nitrogen is as safe and cheap as anything.
6. Nitrogen has a place in underground mines, subways, and aircraft where, should a fire break out, no additional oxygen is added. This is not an issue for above ground applications as there is plenty of oxygen already in the air.
7. Nitrogen obeys the law of pure gases, just like any other gas. It will still change with temperature.
8. Before butyl was used in tubes and tubeless liners, oxygen escaped from the tire, so when a tire was first mounted it had to be inflated daily for a couple of weeks until the oxygen was gone. This isn't true today, and hasn't been true for several decades.
9. There is absolutely no harm done in topping up from your own compressor.
The takeaway is that nitrogen inflation is about as close to a scam as you can get. At best, it may not hurt. At worst it may shorten the tire's life by creating more heat because it takes the tire longer to reach thermal equilibrium.
