On Thursday, December 18, 2014 6:20:54 AM UTC-5, Danny D. wrote:
Ralph Mowery wrote, on Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:17:02 -0500:

Unless a battery has an internal short almost all batteries will show full
voltage without a load. The open circuit voltage tells almost nothing
unless the battery is totally bad or dead.

I agree that, unless one or more cells are shorted, or if the battery
will no longer take any charge whatsoever, an open circuit no-load voltage
test with a DMM won't tell you much.

That is exactly why I brought it to them, to test under load for
at least 10 or 15 minutes.
https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7543/1...7ae3c7de_c.jpg

It tested GOOD. They would have failed it if it tested bad, as they
printed a copy of the test report, so, it clearly was in the lower
range of good.

I'd say it tested bad. They told you based on the load test that
it was on the last 25% of it's life, which means it has reduced
capacity and they are *guessing* that's about how much life it has
left. You also know it's 4 years old. But it's your generator, house
and battery.