Filling Nitrogen in tyres instead of Air

okay ....so my question.....

wher do u find Nitrogen fillers ??....petrol Pumps ??.....i dnt think i've cum across them....or mybe i've not noticed.....?

I only noticed Nitrogen when I was enquiring for tyre prices with tyre showrooms... Nitrogen filling was listed bysome like they give you something priceless instead of the usual discount...

Then went to Tyre Shoppe Noida for finally purchasing my Michelins, and saw an out-of-use nitrogen filling machine there... figured out the entire scheme.... 

I don't think Nitrogen filling is mainstream anywhere in NCR - at least I have not noticed.

No clue about NCR. But Mumbai, you find them everywhere; at almost every petrol pump (even the distant ones), road side tyre repair shops, tyre retails shops etc.

Banwari Ji,

Is humidity a factor then? Air in Delhi/NCR is usually (too) dry, except for the months of 'gandi garmi' - the oppresive humid heat in august/september, but in Mumbai it is humid throughout the year...

It is to be noted, however, that Sunil Pareek, our Nitrogen expert has not commented on the logic behind Nitrogen helping tyres retain pressure... or is it that I am too impatient !

IMO, ideally air should be dehumidified before pumping it into the tyre. However I have never seen it mentioned anywhere that humidity affects tyres negatively. In the worst case (i.e., extremely moist weather - like being on a hill-station covered in clouds) compressed air will contain water droplets (instead of vapour)...again how this affects rubber is something I am not aware of.

Rohit, more than the rubber, it would affect the rims IMO.. and humidity = accelerated corrosion. hence the mumbai connection of Nitrogen acceptability... of course I am thinking tubeless here...

However, I doubt this myself, bcoz if people payed this much attention to stuff, this country would have routed Germany in tech excellence

n how much do they charge u out der,Ban ?

@Krishna, please go through this link - it may help. Thanks.

Pankaj,

Thanks for the link. Some of the points mentioned on the link do not make any sense

When compared to historical data and an in-trial control, nitrogen tire inflation provides a 3.3 percent improvement in fuel efficiency when compared to a fleet using air inflation and a tire pressure maintenance program

How does the vehicle know what is in the tyres? Its only the pressure that matters. The catchword in the claim is 'FLEET'. They do a statistical study, and with one/two rogue non FE-aware drivers in the fleet can cook the goose for pretty much any side. However, for a company with stake in the outcome of the study, these rogues invariably find the side that is NOT favourable to the claim 

The 'improvement' in tyre life is another issue: the base case taken here is an 'average truck tyre' with TWO RETREADS, lasting upto 270 k miles !!! Average car tyre life in India is only ~ 25k miles (40 k km) before tyre tread wear forces a replacement (thanks to the in-vogue inflation norms, I'm still cut up over it)  and retreads are not worth the headache for most private car owners. The effect of nitrogen on such a short tyre life - NEGLIGIBLE.

For conservative users, the limiting factor for tyre aging is compound deterioration - so replace you must at ~ 5 to 6 years, taking an average of 10 k km/year in between, it is about the life of indian car tyre as mentioned above. For heavy users, the tyre wear will force a change even earlier - the 'reduced aging' advantage of N2 notwithstanding.

A claim of 86% improvement in tread life is made, (already conflicting with a figure of 25% in the text preceding the box) on the basis of a NINE MONTH study - If there were a single tyre observed for a controlled study, it would have to run at 80 mph for 16 hrs a day for all 30 days of month for this duration - not logistically possible. And doing this study incrementally does not prove anything.

Regarding rim corrosion: I want to know what is the average life of steelies for CW readers? What difference will N2 bring about in it? What is the penalty paid - in terms of making sure you pump N2 each time you top up pressure, and the price (Heard abt Rs 25/- per top up in the same thread) for total top-ups in that life? Looks like a losing proposition for me. Also the corrosion point does not apply to alloys at all

Notice, that it says check pressure you must, but nitrogen will let you avoid filling. Not much an incentive, I say! This weekly exercise that I have with my car tyres lets me have a weekly review of tyre condition, to check if there is uneven wear / wavy wear / nicks / bulges or other abnormalities. With the claimed'advantages of N2, users will get careless about checking pressure and may suddenly find themselves pulling hard on tyres at 15-20 PSI.  Something I would avoid thru my weekly check/topup using my handy battery operated tyre inflator.

Rgd Pankaj's experiment with N2 and conclusion that it leaks less, so needs less top-up...

Nitrogen and oxygen sit next to each other in the periodic table (Nitrogen atomic number =7, Oxygen = 8). Both have molecules having 2 atoms each. So their physical properties, and hence their diffusion rate has to be the same. It makes not sense in the link (in post #48 above) to show Nitrogen as a bigger dot compared to Oxygen (implying it will diffuse less). If at all, the Nitrogen dot should be smaller (compare 7 to 8), and it's diffusion rate comparable, if not higher (I would say it should be higher)

Another way of pressure loss is through the leaking valve, where the valve lining degrades with oxidation. Pankaj used the same valve to pump up Nitrogen, and then observes it leaked less.. If the valve leaks at a rate due to lining degradation, there is no reason for the SAME valve to leak less when using Nitrogen (the valve has no reason to be partial wthin its own abilities)

So, why was that agin??