This used to be a common ploy played out on unsuspecting car owners at service stations. It looks like it may be a reality soon, and 'air' that you'll be changing to will be nitrogen.
We took our cars to a local service station to have them inspected for registration transfer to Nova Scotia, and we got into a conversation about nitrogen in tires. As it turns out there is a major change coming over the next few years as the big auto companies are introducing nitrogen filled tires on all brand new models. The rims are fitted with a sensor that's part of the valve stem, and this system will constantly monitor tire pressure. Nitrogen, apparently, does not change pressure, unlike conventional 'air'. This means that if you have 32 psi when you start off you will still have 32 psi after driving for 30 minutes. Great. Less expansion of the tire, less wear and tear.
There are a number of other advantages to nitrogen, including the fact that it doesn't degrade the tire composition, isn't effected by cold since the moisture content is so low, improves fuel economy.
The down side to this new system is that working with it will take considerably longer, and could result in much higher costs to the consumer for routine tire rotation and tire changes. This is as a result of the increased work involved in removing the tire from the rim, and then recalibrating the tire sensor computer to account for the movement of the wheels from one location to another.
The other problem is that nitrogen will cost money. $5 to $8 per tire. This means that service centers, dealerships, and gas stations may say that you're getting nitrogen, but how can you tell? Without a sensor gauge, that costs $1000 to buy, you'll have no way of knowing whether you spent $32 for nitrogen, or $32 for plain old 'air'.
I wonder if helium would have been better. That way you could release a little from the tire, and if your voice didn't sound like Alvin the Chipmunk you would know that you got 'hosed'.
2 comments:
It is all about economics. I came from the industrial gas business a a major US MNC background, and pure Nitrogen can be produced at very low cost at high volume.
So, basically, all the other cost adds up, like logistics and distributions etc. On the other hand, there are small standalone machines that can produce fairly pure nitrogen, and even those are quite cheap per m3 (or in the gas industry, they use a term call normal meter cube, NM3). So, it is a matter of supply and demand and if more people uses it, the price will definitely come down...
Wil
Avani
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Ultimately, you are correct. As with anything, the more people who adopt the technology the more efficient the supply chain will become.
The main concern is with the initial switch over and sale of 'nitrogen' to unsuspecting consumers. With the opportunity to take in $32 per car in pure profit by pumping oxygen instead of nitrogen there are bound to be some unscrupulous people out there. The sale of nitrogen compared to the sale of the green valve caps that go with it currently does not equate to a fair handling of the product. In some cases the number of caps sold to stations and dealerships has out-paced the nitrogen tank re-fills considerably. This implies that these establishments are fitting vehicles with the caps and charging for nitrogen that they don't even have.
I'm all for nitrogen in tires. The aircraft industry has been using it for years. I believe that we, as consumers, should be prepared when it comes to what the conversion in the marketplace means. Initially, we could be looking at not getting what we paid for, and for higher costs for routine tire maintenance until things settle out.
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