Nitrogen or 99,996% Helium?

[BeBraveBrother]

Exit bag method:
Sorry if a bit redundant,
but if you had the oppurtunity to choose between a supplier that offers Helium with a claim of having 99,996% purity (the product Information sheet however is saying 99,5% Helium and 0,5%Nitrogin) would you still choose Nitrogin over Helium? If yes why or why not? Where do you see advantages or disadvantages between the two gases?

 

[Aap]

It would probably be easier to find a flow meter for nitrogen.

 

[bov]

i've been wondering the same thing; my Nitrogen supplier claims 99.998% purity but says it's "industrial grade," not "medical" or "food" grade.

 

[Wayfaerer]

I'm not sure but my intuition would suggest helium would be better. Otherwise I think they are the same: inert gases. The purity is what really matters.

 

[Greenberg]

Exit bag method:
Sorry if a bit redundant,
but if you had the oppurtunity to choose between a supplier that offers Helium with a claim of having 99,996% purity (the product Information sheet however is saying 99,5% Helium and 0,5%Nitrogin) would you still choose Nitrogin over Helium? If yes why or why not? Where do you see advantages or disadvantages between the two gases?

Presuming that you indeed can acquire "pure" helium then it would not matter....but it will cost you more than for the same amount of nitrogen. The money you save can be directed to a better regulator for your setup.

 

[WearyOfStruggling]

Exit bag method:
Sorry if a bit redundant,
but if you had the oppurtunity to choose between a supplier that offers Helium with a claim of having 99,996% purity (the product Information sheet however is saying 99,5% Helium and 0,5%Nitrogin) would you still choose Nitrogin over Helium? If yes why or why not? Where do you see advantages or disadvantages between the two gases?

I choose to follow the information in the PPeH regarding physiological issues, and it says any inert gas has the same effect of diluting and flushing away exhaled breath containing CO2 while being completely nonreactive with the body, so helium, argon, and nitrogen work equally well. There are flowmeter regulators available at affordable prices from welding supply companies that work with both helium and argon, and ones for nitrogen as well. Helium is a bit more expensive; maybe up to 10% more than argon or nitrogen for a filled 20 cf cylinder. The online supplier I purchased helium from (abbreviated "WS"), required it to be paid via wire transfer due to previous issues with credit card fraud, but sells filled argon and nitrogen cylinders on credit card payment. Beyond those matters of convenience, I don't believe it matters at all which inert gas is used; only that it contains less than 2% oxygen according to the PPeH, and the flowmeter regulator used is one that is intended for use with the particular gas being used so the flow rate can be set correctly.

 

[Superdeterminist]

Exit bag method:
Sorry if a bit redundant,
but if you had the oppurtunity to choose between a supplier that offers Helium with a claim of having 99,996% purity (the product Information sheet however is saying 99,5% Helium and 0,5%Nitrogin) would you still choose Nitrogin over Helium? If yes why or why not? Where do you see advantages or disadvantages between the two gases?

I'm confused, what are your two choices? It's not clear to me from the post. 99.996% He, or N2 of what purity? Assuming equal or very similar purity, He and N2 should have exactly the same effect, so personally I wouldn't prefer one over the other just based on the gas, other factors like pricing/convenience would probably decide.

 

[BeBraveBrother]

I'm confused, what are your two choices? It's not clear to me from the post. 99.996% He, or N2 of what purity? Assuming equal or very similar purity, He and N2 should have exactly the same effect, so personally I wouldn't prefer one over the other just based on the gas, other factors like pricing/convenience would probably decide.

The 99,996 % was about the helium with small amount of nitrogin (0,05%). There are several canisters with nitrogin and helium with different purities for different purposes. According to the webseit most of them have a purity above 99%, so most of them should work. Anyway I don't understand why they label some with 2.8 and other with 5.0 if the difference of differs so little. I will post pictures later so it will be clearer what I mean. Thanks for your attention :-)