On Fri, 07 Nov 2014 07:57:09 -0800, 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."

And the real truth of the matter is MOST tire shops either do not have
a drier or do not maintain it faithfully - so you are not getting
"dry" 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.

And who pays for the quite substantial cost of the machine in the
first place??
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."
The bottom line is you can be cheap if you want. Doesn't mean other
tire buyers have to follow your lead.