Bad Battery? Bad Starter?

[Fitz98]

04 Nissan Sentra 1.8.
My son has been stating that on 3 separate occasions now, the car would not start at first, sounded like a dead battery with a very slow single turn. Each attempt to start after that, he gets more turns until the 3rd or 4th time and it will start.
The radio resets as well during these times, which leads me to believe it is not starter related.
It does not happen all the time and I have not been able to witness the problem and put my meter on the battery during the slow start condition.
Tonight, he moved the car and said it happened again, but I did not get to hear it. The battery has 12.5 volts (engine off) after moving the car out of the driveway and back into the driveway.
Intermittent problems seem to have started since he completely drained battery by leaving lights on once.
The connections on the battery are clean and tight and alternator is a 3 month old Denso Reman.
Florida Interstate Battery is 3-4 years old, so I am leaning towards battery. What confuses me is that it will be fine for days at a time with no issue.
Not sure if it is relevant, but he has had intermittent issues on 2 occasions with the AC blower not working (Manual Dial Controls), but will come on after a while by itself, another intermittent electrical issue.
Any ideas what else to look for, or maybe just time to dump a new battery in to see if the problem goes away?

 

[DemoFly]

Indicative of a bad ground. Do a voltage drop test at the starter.

 

[Escape08]

How old is the battery? Still under warranty? Go to AutoZone, O'Reiley's, NAPA, or AAP and have the battery test. Have it "load tested" and alternator test or bad voltage regulator.

 

[Fitz98]

Battery was 10.5V this morning, so either bad battery or parasitic drain. Hopefully just bad battery. being 4 years old in Florida, this is most likely the case.

 

[someonesomewhere]

Battery was 10.5V this morning, so either bad battery or parasitic drain. Hopefully just bad battery. being 4 years old in Florida, this is most likely the case.

And summer in Florida. 2 things batteries hate. Very cold and very hot. New battery will probably fix it right up. But do check, clean, and tighten all battery connections on both ends. + And -.

 

[Donald]

A good load test is done using a carbon pile load tester at 1/2 CCA. And temp compensating if not warm. But battery needs to be fully charged.

Thus stores use a conductance tester like a Midtronics. It works even if battery is not fully charged.

Keep in mind battery cables can get corrosion under heat shrink or insulation where it's hard to see.

If starting is weird and not consistent it's probably the battery.

 

[Donald]

And summer in Florida. 2 things batteries hate. Very cold and very hot. New battery will probably fix it right up. But do check, clean, and tighten all battery connections on both ends. + And -.

I am not sure batteries hate cold. More like they prefer room temperature. They don't work as well as when it's warm but are not damaged by cold. Assuming we are not talking Siberia. If the battery freezes all bets are off.

But batteries are damaged by the heat.