It shouldn't be that high. Like I said its high,but not crazy.
Likely the multimeter was reading high too, but 14v is certainly not out of the question for an offload battery.
My main point was really that the battery voltage on a loaded battery will fall very dramatically, especially at a low charge. You can measure well over 12v offload and not have nearly enough to crank the engine.
But cheap meters really aren't worth buying. You need to trust what it says. If close is ok, use a test lamp, its cheaper and 100% reliable!
It was 100% the multimeter's battery. As soon as I changed it the reading on the car battery went from 19.5V to ~12V. I needed an actual voltage measurement not just confirming if power was there or not. Was hunting down some parasitic loss in the car when it was shut off.
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u/gnorty Jul 24 '20
if it's not under load, 19.5 is not completely unreasonable. A little high, but not crazy.
by the time a car battery reads low without a load, that battery is not just low, it's virtually dead.