Tire shop invests in nitrogen injection equipment

A Springfield-based tire business has invested in new equipment that inflates tires with nitrogen.

G.L. Moore Tire, 2253 E. Olive Court, bought a nitrogen generator that purges compressed air out of tires and converts it into 95 percent pure nitrogen. A separate machine injects that nitrogen into tires.

All told, the shop invested about $8,200 in the new equipment, said owner Mark Moore.

Using nitrogen to inflate tires isn't a new concept, said G.L. Moore Service Manager Dave Vernon, who noted that nitrogen has been used in airplane tires and by NASCAR drivers for several years. Among its benefits, Vernon said, are better gas mileage and longer tire life. The nitrogen doesn't escape as quickly between the tire and wheel, so air pressure stays up longer.

Vernon said the shop added the equipment because of customer requests and because the car industry is ramping up its use of nitrogen in tires.

"With newer vehicles having tire-pressure monitor systems, the sensors inside the wheels will get moisture in them, and it'll ruin that sensor," Vernon said. "Nitrogen has no moisture in it at all (and) that sensor isn't going to get the corrosion in it (so) you don't have to replace the sensor."

He noted that sensor costs start out at about $80 apiece, and there are typically four or five of them on a car.

He said other shops may use nitrogen, but typically it will come from bottles, which can make inflation take longer.

"When you're using the bottles, the only way to get it pure enough is by letting the air out of the tires, refilling it, letting it out, refilling it - doing that about three times," Vernon said. "The machines that we bought (do it) automatically for us, so we can actually just plug into all four tires at once."

Customers who choose to have their new tires filled with nitrogen pay a fee of $10 per tire, Vernon said, but that covers the life of the tire.

"If we priced every tire with nitrogen in it, we're automatically going to be $40 higher, so if someone is just pricing over the phone, we could shoot ourselves in the foot," Moore said. "It's an add-on that we try to sell."