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Does old racing nitrous oxide degrade over time?
| Q: |
Hello .... about 10 years ago I used Nitrous Oxide in racing. I have a large bottle with apr. 60 lbs of Nitrous Oxide left. I used this bottle to fill my smaller bottles. I am going to start racing again & my question is ... does Nitrous Oxide go bad after a long period of time? It has been a little over 10 years since the bottle has been opened. Thank you! |
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| A: |
Racing nitrous contains a number of additional gases, including sulfoxides, in order to both enhance its oxidative properties for racing and to discourage abuse. While nitrous oxide itself should be relatively stable, there is a chance that over time it could react with some of the other gasses in the racing mix to form lord-only-knows-what compounds. Unless you can find an authoritative racing reference that tells you it's ok to use 10 yr old nitrous in a car, it would seem to be a good idea to get the bottle refilled just to be safe.
While you didn't specifically ask about recreational ingestion of racing nitrous, it's important to know that racing nitrous is NOT recommended for ingestion because of impurities and additional gases present. Although there are reports of bubbling racing nitrous through water or acidic/basic solutions to strip out impurities, we would definitely not recommend doing this, as there will likely still be other gases present.
-psilo- |
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Categories:
[ Nitrous Oxide ]
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