The Nitrous How-To

[moosifer]

I don't see one of these in the FAQ section so I'll put up the one I just wrote up. Feel free to ask questions, or recommend things to add. I'll make fixes/additions when I have time. Pictures to come whenever I get around to something other than work (Wednesday at the earliest).


What is it?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia – Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as "laughing gas", is a chemical compound with the chemical formula N2O. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a pleasant, slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic effects. It is known as "laughing gas" due to the euphoric effects of inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational use as an inhalant drug.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a dissociative drug that can cause analgesia, depersonalization, derealization, dizziness, euphoria, and some sound distortion. (I’m not providing definitions for those words. Get off your ass and learn something. Emphasis mine, not Wiki's) Users typically inflate a balloon or a plastic bag with nitrous oxide from a tank or a one-use 'charger', and then inhale the gas for its effects. Nitrous oxide expelled directly from a tank or canister is extremely cold, and would severely damage the user's lungs.

Inhaling and exhaling from/into the balloon is common, but can be dangerous. Doing this for extended amounts of time can result in passing out, and if you’re not sitting, some pain when you fish out and smash into shit. It’s safer to inhale from the balloon and hold for ~10 seconds, then exhale through your nose, and then inhale again.
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Where is it available?
-Some concerts and most festivals, particularly in the ‘jam’ scene. Usually at big shows with a good sized lot scene. Listen for the phrase “gas” or “ice cold fatties,” those are some of the slang terms for nitrous. The term comes from the fact that gas escaping the cylinder at expands extremely fast and causes the tank to actually freeze. It’s commonly dealt out the back of vehicles, or from ‘teams’ moving around the lot. A team (from my experience) usually involves one person filling balloons from the tank, one person taking cash and passing out balloons, and sometimes one or more persons as lookouts. A ‘team’ will set up shop in one area for a few minutes at a time. This time can vary, depending on security presence in the lot. If it’s quiet, they may stay in one spot until the tank is empty. If a huge line starts to build up in a medium-light security lot, they’ll move to avoid drawing attention. Prices vary. $5/balloon is average, but you’ll find some people selling 3/$20 or 5/$20. It all depends on who your salesperson is. The more aggressive sales people ("3 for 20 no deals no change") often charge the higher prices, and are more organized, with multiple tanks all over the lot. Some refer to these groups as part of the “Nitrous Mafia” operating out of Philly. There’s a lot of money to be made from nitrous, and they are extremely efficient at pulling it in.

-Nitrous Chargers

– These are small eight or twelve gram cartridges of nitrous (8 gram being more common). They look similar to the small cartridges of CO2 used in low-end pump style paintball guns. These are most often found in porn shops, head shops, or online. Prices vary – one website has them listed at $9 for a case of 24. A head shop in my area sells them for $22 per case. You’ll need either a “cracker” or a whipped cream dispenser to use these. A “cracker” is a small, screw-together tube, made of either metal or plastic, in which the charger fits. One end is sealed, while the other has a couple holes to release the gas through. Inside the top part is a needle that pierces the metal cap of the charger.

Spoiler for charger pics:

-Whipped Cream – Don’t even bother going to the grocery store for cans of whipped cream and huffing the gas. It’s a huge waste of money, since a can of whipped cream is at least $2-3, and doesn’t have much gas in it.
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How do I use a “cracker?”

Spoiler for metal cracker pictures:

w/pill case for scale

It’s a fairly simple process, and I’ll detail the best method I’ve found so far. You will need:
• Glove (for your non-dominant hand)
• Cracker
• Charger(s)
• Balloons (punching-balloons work the best for refilling multiple times, and for putting 2-3 chargers into) Wal*Mart sells a bag of 4 for less than $2, in the party supplies section

1) Unscrew the cracker. See the ‘needle’ in the cap?
2) Insert charger into cracker, with the narrow end of the charger facing the cap with the ‘needle’ in it.
3) Twist the top of the cracker slowly until you feel just barely resistance, and STOP.
4) Stretch the balloon to the top of the cracker, over the holes.
5) Put on your glove
6) Hold the end of the cracker w/ the balloon attached in your non-dominant, gloved hand. Using your un-gloved, dominant hand, twist the cracker together some more. One to two full rotations will suffice.
7) Here’s the only ‘tricky’ part. Still holding the balloon end in your gloved hand, use your dominant had to SLOWLY un-twist the cracker halves. I’m talking a quarter turn in 3 seconds slow. The gas will begin escaping into the balloon. If you twist too quickly, the gas will freeze the balloon and cracker top much quicker, and you risk literally cracking the frozen balloon.
8) When the hissing sound stops, your charger is empty. Pinch off the balloon at the neck, as far away from the cracker as possible (this part of the balloon will be least brittle).
9) Maintaining the pinch on the balloon, use your dominant hand to unscrew the cracker halves, and discard the empty charger.
10) If you’re only doing one charger at a time, from here you detach the balloon from the cracker top (careful, the cap will likely be freezing cold), and proceed to inhale.
11) If you’re doing two or more chargers into one balloon, you want to twist the neck of the balloon before doing step 9 to avoid losing gas. Leave the top of the cracker attached to the balloon.
12) Repeat steps 2-9 (excluding steps #4/5 since you’re already doing them. I told you I was going to go into detail).
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Probably a stupid question but can you just buy nitrous tanks?

"Yes" you can buy nitrous tanks. Not legally unless you have a catering certificate, a medical license, or a car shop. Automotive grade nitrous is dirty, and often contaminated with sulfur dioxide to prevent abuse. If you know a person who knows a person, you can get your hands on it. You'll need to buy the empty tank itself (you can find them on eBay, amongst other places), then find a filling station. That's where the catering/medical license is necessary. They cannot legally fill a tank without that. However, it's obvious that the filling stations don't always follow the law, and some will fill a tank for a price. I don't know much about this end of the business. The only two filling stations I know of (near NY) are in Philadelphia and Boston (hence the "Philly Nitrous Mafia").

Originally Posted by mycopia.net

In Philadelphia - About $110 for food grade(~94% no2, rest is oxygen) and $200 for medical (nearly 100% no2) for a 20lb tank

If you do a little math, and recall the 8g cylinders listed above, we can break those numbers down. Festy balloons appear to have ~20g of nitrous in them. Google tells me that 20 lbs is 9,072g, or ~226 balloons. At $5/balloon, that's $1130. Nearly $1000 PROFIT from one 20lb tank. Now imagine a festival atmosphere with dozens of tanks running all night long (they don't call it Hippie Crack for nothing).

Fun fact - at moe.down this year, security confiscated over 100 tanks. ~3/4 of those tanks were empty.

As I said before, there is A LOT of money to be made in the nitrous game.

[Ukera]

A good detailed guide.

I remember someone asking for something like this a couple of days ago, this will definitely help a lot of people.

A new nitrous guide has been needed.

+Rep.

[red eyed]

Good FAQ, I'll be using this when my stuff comes in the mail. +REP

[ArucardX]

Well written +rep

[Introspective]

I've heard mixed things, how long does the high last from Nitrous?

[wng-]

Originally Posted by StrangeTimes

I've heard mixed things, how long does the high last from Nitrous?

2, 3 minutes.

[Pinkfloyd]

Originally Posted by wng-

2, 3 minutes.

I'd say less then that maybe 30 seconds to a minute if you just down it all right away. I like to just usually fill a balloon with 2 cartridges and nurse on it for like 3 minutes though.

[Renegade]

They have those nitrous cartridges at walmart, this pellet pistol I have uses them.

Probably a stupid question but can you just buy nitrous tanks?

[moosifer]

Probably a stupid question but can you just buy nitrous tanks?

"Yes" you can buy nitrous tanks. Not legally unless you have a catering certificate, a medical license, or a car shop. Automotive grade nitrous is dirty, and often contaminated with sulfur dioxide to prevent abuse. If you know a person who knows a person, you can get your hands on it. You'll need to buy the empty tank itself (you can find them on eBay, amongst other places), then find a filling station. That's where the catering/medical license is necessary. They cannot legally fill a tank without that. However, it's obvious that the filling stations don't always follow the law, and some will fill a tank for a price. I don't know much about this end of the business. The only two filling stations I know of (near NY) are in Philadelphia and Boston (hence the "Philly Nitrous Mafia").

Originally Posted by mycopia.net

In Philadelphia - About $110 for food grade(~94% no2, rest is oxygen) and $200 for medical (nearly 100% no2) for a 20lb tank

If you do a little math, and recall the 8g cylinders listed above, we can break those numbers down. Festy balloons appear to have ~20g of nitrous in them. Google tells me that 20 lbs is 9,072g, or ~226 balloons. At $5/balloon, that's $1130. Nearly $1000 PROFIT from one 20lb tank. Now imagine a festival atmosphere with dozens of tanks running all night long (they don't call it Hippie Crack for nothing).

Fun fact - at moe.down this year, security confiscated over 100 tanks. ~3/4 of those tanks were empty.

As I said before, there is A LOT of money to be made in the nitrous game.

[jesusfish]

Originally Posted by Renegade

They have those nitrous cartridges at walmart, this pellet pistol I have uses them.

Probably a stupid question but can you just buy nitrous tanks?

Are you sure those are nitrous and not CO2?

[boardordi3]

I had an incredddible time last week at the dentist for my root canal.

I just took some deep rips, and i was gonee.

[dnbmember]

My step sisters husband who is 30 something said when he was in high school him and his friends drove around with a tank of nitrous in their car. He put a wig and clothes on it to make it look like a person lol.

[moose_inc24]

Originally Posted by m4k

My step sisters husband who is 30 something said when he was in high school him and his friends drove around with a tank of nitrous in their car. He put a wig and clothes on it to make it look like a person lol.

Haha fucking priceless.

N2O is the shit man.

[reeferman420]

You should add something about whipped cream dispensers. I've only done nitrous from balloons, but I've heard great things about the dispensers.

[naryuslove]

iI actually did nitrous for the first time last night. a guy i was buying bud off of offered me a few hits... I ended up spending three hours taking rips out of balloons he was filling from a tank. I have no idea how much I did, but it was a really euphoric experience! The high lasted from 10 seconds to a whole minute, all dependent on how long i held in each time. The longer i held it, the longer the high lasted. When I woke up this morning my throat was hurting a lot, but that's probably from getting choked with a tape measure (i'm a little kinky... ok a lot kinky.) All in all its definitely something i will be trying again in the near future.

[sugarbunny]

I think an important thing to remember is that when you are breathing in from the balloon your brain is being deprived so make sure to take some breathes of air as well to avoid fainting and possibly hurting yourself!

[Quoth the Raven]

Originally Posted by reeferman420

You should add something about whipped cream dispensers. I've only done nitrous from balloons, but I've heard great things about the dispensers.

Yep, I have a dispenser. They're not expensive, and they have the big advantage of not freezing your hands. You can either filll balloons from em like a cracker, or just stick the nozzle in your mouth and inhale, either works fine.

You'll see 'em at starbucks, and there's loads of kitchen supply shops that will sell them.

[Lil Dragonfly]

I second that.

Somebody please add something about whipped cream dispensers!

[Lil Dragonfly]

Is it true that nitrous tanks contain wood shavings? Ouch!

[slayed]

Originally Posted by Lil Dragonfly

Is it true that nitrous tanks contain wood shavings? Ouch!

What?

I dont understand why anyone would add something to n2o to deter people from huffing it.

I get my auto grade n2o from AirGas, the only difference from medical grade is 10 ppm of Carbon Monoxide and very small amounts of gases found in the air you breathe.

Ive never had n2o that smelled like sulfur or anything, but wouldnt adding unnecessary things to your oxidizer result in less quality racing?

Dont believe the hype, where Im from you need no license for any kind of N2O, hence its an uncontrolled substance.

I go through a lot of n2o with all the racing, whip cream making and dentistry I practice so ask away.

[JeremyF]

How many balloons should you max out at?

[LadyGaga]

What do you mean max out? I've done a whole case (24) in a sitting, but it really just depends on how many holes you want to put in your brain.
If you mean how many chargers you can put into a balloon, I have done three in those punching balloons with the rubberbands... those are the best balloon, IMO.

edit: Has anyone used a "whippinator?" It's the shit- the whipped cream can that you can dispense like three chargers into?

[Ukera]

I have a "Whippinator" that my friend gave to me; I haven't used it in around a year now lol. Nitrous is a bit dull now.

[OxyFlower]

That was a good tutorial guide, but too many of you it's going to seem like there were a lot of directions, and in all reality, this is probably one of the easiest "legal" highs out there.

You can actually get boxes of these cartridges in any headshop (in Calif. anyway). They also sell the cracker and the balloon, so it's all right there. The cracker is like ten bucks, with hole(s) on one end. Balloons come with. They sold me two balloons. They have a rubber band on them. They look like a toy, you know? Like a balloon you can blow up and use kind of like a yo-yo.

You shouldn't need more than one balloon, unless you plan on sitting in a circle, doing it with friends, although two is better, in case you get nervous and rip one of the balloons. I have done this several times a long time ago (when I was a teenager) and the cases I bought I want to say they had about 17 dozen, which is about 204 Nitrous carttridges. They were fairly inexpensive, depending on what you consider inexpensive, of course.

Easiest way is to place your cartridge inside the cracker, wrap the balloon around the end of the cracker with the holes, balloon sitting semi- upright. BE CAREFUL about letting the air out too fast! It's cold!!!!! Like, burn your finger cold. Your mouth will be okay after a second of the gas being inside the balloon (it's no longer under pressure inside the cartridge).
After you've drained all the gas into the balloon, pinch and twist it and carefully roll the mouth of the balloon off the cracker (the side with the hole).

Now....you take a deep breathe out and just like inhaling helium, suck as much gas as you can into your lungs, hold for a few seconds, then exhale.

It's not going to be a satisfying high. It won't last more than a few minutes each time you use a new whippit. And I don't know if you're married or in a relationship, but this is commonly used in sex. Just as either or both parties are about to orgasm, this drug supposedly intensifies the orgasm and makes it last longer.

Hope this was informative. If you have questions, feel free to Private Msg me.
Be prepared for a head rush. Don't be standing, or you may lose your balance and hit your head, etc.

The rush wears off after up tp five minutes, in my own experience. So, be prepared to sit there with the whole box. That's usually the norm for people who do this now and then.

*(Please be careful, as inhalants can be harmful and potentially fatal)* EVEN WITH FIRST USE.

Be safe and have fun, friend.
.

[Lil Dragonfly]

Originally Posted by wng-

(the high lasts) 2, 3 minutes.

Well last night I finally went and tried it (whipped cream and balloon). Holy shit! It didn't last for 2-3 minutes, more like 8-10 hours!

[Ollie Cromwell]

Originally Posted by Lil Dragonfly

Well last night I finally went and tried it (whipped cream and balloon). Holy shit! It didn't last for 2-3 minutes, more like 8-10 hours!

Um, what?

Each canister lasts 2-3 minutes? If you're really high for 8-10 hours, something is *very* wrong with you. See a doctor.

[slayed]

I could see 8-10 hrs of continuous use, but for a single balloon. Instantly high, and then you come right back.

[Lil Dragonfly]

Maybe my psych meds have something to do with it? I take enough of them to kill a horse.

That, and the fact that I react strangely to drugs in general. (I love drugs that most people hate, I hate drugs that most people love, and no matter what I take, it only takes a tiny dose to get me really high)

I don't plan on ever repeating the experience, it was like a shittier, less euphoric, more paranoid version of DXM (which I could easily be taking instead). Should I still tell a doctor though?

[onletme]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't nitrous get you high from oxygen deprivation to your brain? If your brains oxygen was cut off for hours on end from one whip cream container, then yes


CALL A DOCTOR

[GimmeFiction]

I don't think that's how it works.
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/nitr...s_media1.shtml

Originally Posted by Erowid

Contrary to popular drug lore, nitrous does not produce its fleeting euphoria by cutting off the flow of oxygen to your brain (in fact, it increases your intercranial blood flow).