Where to fill tires with Nitrogen air?

[Bell Rep]

Which shops in the GTA/North York area do this? I heard it should be $20?

[drn1986]

i thought i saw a notice/banner at canadian tire at leslie and sheppard

[corrupt123]

Don't bother, it's a fad. You'd probably be happier with the $20 in your pocket.

Just check your tire pressure every once in a while. Check your lights and fluids while you're at it... This is all part of basic car ownership.

[jm1]

Costco also does this for new installs. Do you mean fill up your current tires or new installs?

I would never pay extra money for this. Although interesting in theory, I very much doubt it'll make any difference in the real world where air can leak out for many reasons. However, if you really want some nitrogen, I can offer you a deal: for $10, I'll fill up your tires with 78% nitrogen! That's 78% of the nitrogen at only 50% of the price!

For another $5, I'll make sure most of the remaining 22% is oxygen, too!

[Bell Rep]

Costco also does this for new installs. Do you mean fill up your current tires or new installs?

I would never pay extra money for this. Although interesting in theory, I very much doubt it'll make any difference in the real world where air can leak out for many reasons. However, if you really want some nitrogen, I can offer you a deal: for $10, I'll fill up your tires with 78% nitrogen! That's 78% of the nitrogen at only 50% of the price!

For another $5, I'll make sure most of the remaining 22% is oxygen, too!

For current tires.

[Anomaly_X]

I can offer you a deal: for $10, I'll fill up your tires with 78% nitrogen! That's 78% of the nitrogen at only 50% of the price!

For another $5, I'll make sure most of the remaining 22% is oxygen, too!

hahaha good deal

[stealth]

waste of money.

[User Name]

How do you know they are even filling with pure Nitrogen? I bet half the time they just wait 5 mins, top up your tire with regular air, and pocket your $20.

[corrupt123]

How do you know they are even filling with pure Nitrogen? I bet half the time they just wait 5 mins, top up your tire with regular air, and pocket your $20.

In the shops defense, there are N2 filling stations that are being marketed to dealers and repair shops and my understanding is that they've been quite successful. The reality however is the fact that unless you're pushing your tires to the upper limit of their operating conditions, you will notice ZERO effect from N2 in your tires.

[hightech]

Interesting review from Consumer Reports:

Nitrogen in tires
Filling tires with nitrogen rather than air is becoming a common practice in the replacement tire market. This service offers tire dealers another avenue for making money while also promoting safety. The claimed safety benefits often include the potential for reducing air loss compared to an air-filled tire. Maintaining proper inflation can help prevent tire overheating; promote optimum tread life; and reduce rubber aging and wheel corrosion. The use of nitrogen in large truck fleets and the commercial tire industry are well documented and support many of these claims.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has seen reduced aging of tires filled with nitrogen. Though the data technically does support that passenger car tires could benefit by the claims made for nitrogen in maintaining inflation pressure better than air, tire manufacturers say that they already design tires to perform well with air inflation. And while nitrogen will do no harm, manufacturers say that they don't see the need to use nitrogen, which generally adds $5 or more per tire charge.

Consumer Reports wanted to find out if nitrogen is worth the price, so we purchased a Nitrogen Inflation System and checked out how well the inflation held up over a one year period. We evaluated pairs of 31 tire models of H- and V-speed rated, all-season tires used in our tread wear test from 2006. We filled one tire per model with air and the other with nitrogen. The test was quite simple: fill and set the inflation pressure at room temperature to 30 psi (pounds per square inch); set the tire outdoors for one year; and then recheck the inflation pressure at room temperature after a one year period.

The tires were filled and deflated three times with nitrogen to purge the air out of the tire cavity. We also used an oxygen analyzer to be sure we had 95-percent nitrogen purity in the tire—the claimed purity limit of our nitrogen system, which generates nitrogen gas from ambient air.

We conducted a year long test of the effects of nitrogen in tires and the results show nitrogen does reduce pressure loss over time, but the reduction is only a 1.3 psi difference from air-filled tires. The average loss of air-filled tires was just 3.5 psi from the initial 30 pressure setting. Nitrogen-filled tires lost an average of 2.2 psi from the initial 30 psi setting. More important, all tires lost air pressure regardless of the inflation medium, so consumers should check their tires' air pressure routinely. No evaluation was done to assess the aging claim.

Overall, consumers can use nitrogen and might enjoy the slight improvement in air retention provided, but it's not a substitute for regular inflation checks.


Bottom Line: Invest in a good quality tire gauge, and check the tires monthly.