Free Air for your Car Tires

If you live in California, like me, you should receive free air for your car, if you purchase gas. However, gas stations may still try and change you for air (and water), but this is illegal so you are in every right to ask them to turn it on, and can report them if they do not. In most other states you may have to pay, but you can avoid this by looking at a specific webpage that gives you details on gas stations that provide free air.

This site is freeairpump.com, which provides ‘an ever-growing list of places that provide free air for tires’. It’s really useful for everyone, as you should keep your tires properly inflated for safety and for improved mpg of your car. It is particularly useful for the hypermilers trying to push the mpg of their car or those battling a slow air leak in one of their tires. Did you know that every 1% drop in all four of your tires will lower you gas mileage by 0.3%, so no wonder the hypermilers like to monitor their tire pressure so fastidiously.

Freeairpump.com provides a user-generated map, so it is not claiming to be the definitive map, and you can help this site out if you find a local station that provides free air, by adding them to the map. Even for Californians it can be helpful, as maybe you just want to check the air in your tires and don’t need to buy gas. If you are going to do this, it is worth also getting a tire pressure gauge yourself, as you can’t rely on the gas station pump having one (fortunately, the ones around me do). Another nice feature of freeairpump.com is that it also caters to bicyclists. You can find many bike repair shops or even stand alone bike bumps, and there is also a blog on this page, with a few interesting green living focused articles.