Is this a hoax? They say I’ll have less pressure loss, better km/l, and less wear and tear.
I think they are smoking something but ....
At CHF8 per tyre the benefits have to be pretty significant.
My tire guys are recommending nitrogen in my tires vs compressed air.
Seems it's a thing. Not sure whether there are any benefits to it but at least you know he's not pulling your chain...
A 78% mix seems to work just fine.
Yes, of course it will make your car at least 10% faster, especially if you use snake oil in the engine as well...
Seriously, the idea's been around for years, but even if the 'larger molecules will leak less' claim is true, all it will do is keep your tyres at the correct pressure for longer, nothing that regular checking won't achieve equally well.
In short, it's nonsense.
This has been around for years.
it can keep pressures more stable, but really only important if you are racing.
It can also reduce moisture buildup inside the tyre. But again - marginal gain...
If it is being offered for free, take it. If they want you to pay - forget it.
And what will you do when the pressure is low? Go back to the snake oil salesmen to get more Nitrogen?
It's a hoax. If it were a F1 car, sure.
pilatus1 made a good joke, but I think it's better to explain it... many people actually don't know that normal air is already composed by Nitrogen at 78%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth
It's not, as the other main constiuent of air is oxygen, air has on average larger molecules that pure nitrogen!
In any case, a serious racer would use hydrogen for minimal weight.
Tom
With the risk of ignition and severe fire in case of an accident.
...
No -- not that it's really important for tyre inflation, oxygen molecules are heavier (molecular weight, 32) but smaller than nitrogen molecules (MW, 28), so the constituents of compressed air are on average smaller than pure nitrogen molecules (and almost none of the molecules found in air are larger than nitrogen molecules).
The exact diameter of molecules of oxygen and nitrogen is very difficult to measure, but can be calculated under various conditions. In all cases, N2 is reckoned to be larger than O2. Here are the diameters of each molecule in Angstroms (10^-10 m, i.e. ten-billionths of a metre), with the basis for calculation:
- gas viscosity
O2: 2.96
N2: 3.16
- van der Waal's interaction
O2: 2.90
N2: 3.14
- molecular refraction
O2: 2.34
N2: 2.40
I reckon a difference in molecular diameter of about two hundred-billionths of a metre isn't going to make a whole lot of difference to the leakage rate through a tyre valve or around the tyre rims...
I'm using extra large, lightweight oxygen molecules for the tyres. Very happy with it.
I just got a set of green valve caps, far cheaper
....and people think i'm cool and have N in my tires
Thanks Guys,
That is exactly what I thought. Snake Oil!
I watched the whole video and really enjoyed it (especially the full-on Aussie accent and typically forthright style), but I'm a little unclear on the conclusion—does the guy like nitrogen in tyres, or not?
The air we breathe is already 78% nitrogen. Sounds like scam to me.
Probably more like an over the top feature.
From: https://www.formula1.com/en/champion...ing/Tyres.html
Question is what kind of a difference this would make in a normal car, which doesn't have the tyres changed twice per hour and is rarely or never driven on the limit.
Virtually nothing, you might want to watch the video posted earlier for the exact answers.
Nitrogen is used in aeroplane tyres as the water in normal O2 tends to freeze due to sustained low temperatures at altitude. It's used in race cars for the opposite reason....vaporising due to high temperatures.
People have been using normal air in car tyres for a very long time and it's been fine :-)
Normal air and O2 are not exactly the same thing. O2 doesn't contain any water vapour
You mean Oxygen-11 ? But that would immediately decay to C-11, then to Boron, so probably not that practical.