While buying some new tires, I was a sign saying that they used Nitrogen Inflation.  Time to look into it. The Get Nitrogen Institute would love everyone to fill their tires with Nitrogen.

“When it comes to tire inflation, nitrogen has many advantages over oxygen. With nitrogen tire inflation, improvements can be noted in a vehicle’s handling, fuel efficiency and tire life through better tire pressure retention, improved fuel economy and cooler running tire temperatures.”

Consumereports.org did analysis in 2007 and found that there were some benefits in lessening tire pressure loss, but very small ones.

“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.”

Good to know my new tires have nitrogen but we’re not running out to keep them nitrogen inflated in the future.