nitro vs compressed air

I hope I am not beating a dead horse by asking this. Are there advantages to running compressed air in a scubba tank over nitrogen or the other way around? I have heard people save compressed air is cheaper b/c fire stations and what not will sometimes fill for free and scubba shops fill for cheaper than what welding shops charge for nitrogen. However I am more concerned with time between refills....

honestly i think the ride is a little better on nitrogen than with just compressed air...the cost for a "home owners" bottle is around16 bux to fill here in baytown, now i was fillin mine 1 or 2 times a week. i took it all out cuz it just isnt worth the cost to me....so im either goin to go with edc or with the 380 dual pack....

Back when I had my ranger, had a 3 gallon collection tank mounted in place of spare. Had the nitrogen tank piped into it as well as a single 380 compressor. If I turned the nitrogen on, it would keep the 3 gallon tank pressurized and the 380 wouldn't kick on because the pressure switch wouldn't trip. If I kept the Nitrogen turned off or ran out, the compressor would kick on and fill up the tank until I got the Nitrogen replaced. Bing bang boom - The best of both worlds!

I now just run a pair of 380's on my F150 and ditched the Nitrogen, so far I haven't missed it.

Hope this helps,

i run 1 480 on a 8 gallon at 150 psi and i also run nitro for fun, for daily i run the 480 and it doesnt take long to recover because i hardly lay out my truck but my frt leaks down and rear leaks up so i keep the nitro off, i pay 16 a refill and when my comps took a crap i could run a week or longer on a bottle of nitro thats filling the tank lifting the truck and turn it off till the following day

Edited: 12/26/2008 1:47:27 PM by FreakwitaFro

there are a few reasons why nitrogen is better than CO2. the first reason is that nitrogen isn't temperature sensitive like CO2 meaning that in the winter your CO2 bottles won't last as long because the gas doesn't expand as much but it the summer its possible to get your bottles to last a little longer.

Another reason is nitrogen is a dry gas. CO2 bottles you have to mount at an angle and use water traps in most cases because if you don't you'll get moisture running thru the valves which=bad news over time.

I used to run a 20lb CO2 bottle in my truck and it lasted ALMOST 2 weeks and that was layin out my truck every day at school and at home and everyelse i went. Well thats all i've got but someone else might chime in and say other wise.