What’s The Difference Between Nitrogen-Filled Tires Versus Air-Filled Tires For Your Car, Truck or SUV?
If you’ve ever experienced your Tire Pressure Monitoring System or TPMS Warning Light and wondered whether air in your tires or nitrogen in your tires is better for your car or truck, you’re not alone. This is an increasingly common question, most often asked when customers are putting “air” in their tires; having a punctured or flat tire repaired; or, shopping for new tires for sale online or in-store. Given its growing use as an option for filling your tires, we’d like to share a few reasons why nitrogen-filled tires may be an option for your vehicle and/or driving conditions.
The Simple Truth About – Why Nitrogen Is Better In Your Tires?
The short answer is, nitrogen is more stable and therefore better for the overall life and performance of your tires. But there’s a catch, you’ll need readily-available access to tire dealers or tire shops in your area that service nitrogen-filled tires. This is important because, once you’ve put nitrogen in your tires, it’s best to keep filling them with nitrogen, when necessary, and not mixing in oxygen.
Ok, so how are nitrogen-filled tires really better? Nitrogen in tires (versus air in tires) is less likely to bleed through the tires rubber, resulting in more stable tire pressure throughout the life of the tire. More consistent tire pressure is important for the tread wear of your tires and your vehicles fuel economy. Constantly changing or inconsistent tire pressure due to air-filled tires puts undue stress on your tires tread and body, which may contribute to increased tire wear, aka reduced tread wear life. Nitrogen reduces the likelihood of this and improves gas mileage, giving you greater confidence and control when driving, while extending the life and improving the performance of your tires.
Another great benefit of nitrogen is that it oxidizes less than air, making it ideal if you’re putting together custom tire and wheel packages. Over time, the oxidative properties of air (oxygen) break down the rims finish in the “bead area” and may lead to air leakage around this area of the rim and tire package. This is an extremely common issue with chrome tire and wheel packages and also steel wheel and tire packages.
What’s The Deal With Putting Air In My Tires?
So, what does that mean for those that put air in their tire? If you put air in your car or truck tires that’s ok. For most of us, air still remains the most convenient and accessible choice. Where it is least helpful though, and where nitrogen-filled tires tend to perform better, is in areas that experience all four seasons or (often wildly) varying temperatures. An example of this would be in the Sierra Nevada’s where daytime temperatures can climb into the 100’s and drop well into the low 60’s a few hours later.
This drastic swing in temperature can change your tires pressure, plus or minus, 4 to 10 psi or pounds per square inch. Simply put, this could mean the difference between driving on your tires at MAX PSI, which is really hard on your center tire tread, or an incredibly LOW PSI, which is hard on your outer tire tread. Either way, this is not ideal for the maximum life of your tires and will negatively affect their tread wear.
Thankfully, this is less of a concern in areas where such dramatic fluctuations in season or temperature are less likely, or in those previously mentioned areas that may have long stretches of consistent weather conditions, making the continued use of air-filled tires a perfectly acceptable choice.
Regardless of your choice, at Next Tires we like to encourage you to check your tires weekly, whether it be during your regular visit to the gas station, weekly errands or, on what we like to call Tire Check Tuesday. A simple, visual check of your tires more regularly will help extend the life of your tires, by helping you notice and address any concerns sooner than later. We also believe this a good habit as part of your routine vehicle care and maintenance.
Next Tires Is Committed To Helping You Save Time & Money!
So, before you spend a bunch of money on your next set of tires for your new rims or wheels, we’d like to help! Please give us a call at 1-800-713-4728 so we might better understand what you’re shopping for and share with you the best new tires in your size and tire care options for your needs and the conditions you regularly encounter.
As we mentioned above, the availability of nitrogen in your area is important. Because of this, we ask you to keep in mind how readily-available nitrogen is for you, as limited availability and the cost to fill your tires with nitrogen, depending on your location and tire professional, may make nitrogen-filled tires a cost-prohibitive choice. If so, we’ll gladly share other tire saving tips to help protect the life of your tires while saving you money on your new tire purchase.
Call Us at 1-800-713-4728. We’re here to help! You can also email us at support@nexttires.com. For a limited time, shop our new tires for sale and Save w/ Free Shipping and the Next Tires Risk Free Guarantee.** We look forward to speaking with and helping you with your next tires!
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