On Friday, November 7, 2014 10:57:13 AM UTC-5, SMS wrote:
On 11/5/2014 2:53 PM, Jeff Strickland wrote:

No, nitrogen is snake oil. The air we breathe is already something like
80% nitrogen.

You do not understand the difference between dry nitrogen and the air we
breathe.

What you should be saying is this "a tire shop fills your tires with air
from a compressor that has a dryer attached to it. The drier removes
much of the moisture from the air."

Costco likely calculated that the cost of compressor dryers, in terms of
energy and maintenance, increased tire warranty repair costs, and labor
costs dealing with customers coming in with TPMS issues, made including
nitrogen at no extra cost a good idea financially.

Tire stores have nitrogen generators they don't get nitrogen deliveries.
The incremental cost of nitrogen to the tire store once they purchase
the machine is trivial, membrane and filter replacement only.

The bottom line is "don't pay extra for nitrogen and don't buy tires at
any store that does not include nitrogen at no extra charge."

When you have a study or any actual data at all that shows what you clain,
ie nitrogen gives you less warranty claims, longer treadlife, etc, I'm
sure we'd all be happy to see it. You have no way of knowing why Costco
or anyone else uses nitrogen. It very well could be that it's just marketing
hype. Some segment of customers believe that nitrogen does what you claim,
so Costco provides it to lure in those customers. Until someone has some
real data that shows nitrogen makes a material difference, I say it's BS.