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What gas is safe to fill balloons with?
Release time:
2026-02-04
If you want a balloon to float, whether it’s an aluminum-film balloon, a latex balloon, a PVC inflatable model, or any other type of balloon, filling it with helium is the safest option. The reason balloons can float is that the density of the gas inside them is lower than that of air. Many people think that balloons filled with hydrogen can also float—what we commonly refer to as “hydrogen balloons.” Indeed, because hydrogen has a lower density than air, it can float. In middle school chemistry, we learned about the periodic table of elements, which lists the elements in order of increasing atomic number: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium... As you can see here, hydrogen (or hydrogen gas) has the lowest density, and helium follows closely behind, indicating that helium is also a very light gas. Therefore, balloons filled with helium can indeed float. So why is helium considered the safest gas? Helium, known in English as "Helium" and symbolized by "He," is why many foreign vendors refer to helium-filled balloons as "helium balloons." Helium is an inert, colorless, and odorless gas. The term "inert" means it's passive and unreactive. In other words, unlike hydrogen, helium won't make a fire burn more vigorously or even explode when exposed to an open flame. On the contrary, if you blow helium toward an open flame, the flame will actually go out. That’s precisely why filling our balloons with helium is the safest choice. For everyone’s safety, we strongly advise customers not to use hydrogen to inflate aluminum foil balloons. Due to cost considerations, most of the aluminum-film balloons we see on the streets and in parks are filled with hydrogen. If we were to switch to helium, just the cost of helium alone would be around 3 to 4 yuan per balloon. Add to that the cost of the aluminum foil balloon itself, which already runs about 5 yuan. Meanwhile, the retail price of hydrogen balloons commonly seen on the street is only a few yuan. Hydrogen is extremely cheap—filling a single balloon typically costs only a few cents—and that’s precisely why there’s still room for profit.
If you want a balloon to float, whether it’s an aluminum-film balloon, a latex balloon, a PVC inflatable model, or any other type of balloon, filling it with helium is the safest option. The reason balloons can float is that the density of the gas inside them is lower than that of air. Many people assume that balloons filled with hydrogen can also float—these are what we commonly call “hydrogen balloons.” Since hydrogen has a lower density than air, it can indeed make a balloon float. In middle school chemistry, we learned about the periodic table of chemical elements, which lists the elements in order of increasing atomic number: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium... As you can see here, hydrogen (or hydrogen gas) has the lowest density, and helium follows closely behind. This clearly shows that helium is also a very light gas, which is why balloons filled with helium can float as well.
So why is helium considered the safest gas? Helium, known in English as "Helium" and symbolized by "He," is why many overseas vendors refer to balloons filled with helium as "helium balloons." Helium is an inert, colorless, and odorless gas. The term "inert" here means that it’s lazy and unreactive—put simply, it won’t make a fire burn more vigorously or even explode when exposed to an open flame, just like hydrogen does. On the contrary, if you blow helium toward an open flame, the flame will actually go out. That’s precisely why filling our balloons with helium makes it the safest gas to use.
For everyone’s safety, we strongly advise our customers not to inflate aluminum foil balloons with hydrogen. Due to cost considerations, the aluminum-film balloons we commonly see on the streets and in parks are almost always filled with hydrogen. If we were to switch to helium instead, the cost of helium alone would already be between 3 and 4 yuan. Add to that the cost of the aluminum foil balloon itself, and the total cost would easily climb to around 5 yuan. Yet, the retail price of hydrogen-filled balloons commonly seen on the streets is typically just a few yuan. Hydrogen is extremely inexpensive—generally, filling a single balloon costs only a few cents—and that’s precisely why there’s still room for profit.
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