Also all printed circuit boards have a like glazed coating on them to protect the current paths from arcing out on foreign objects which wold create shorts, this coating has a smell that may be associated with “burnt” or “bad” electronics. After time once the coating fully cures the smell will dissapate. Sometimes “heat” from normal usage will agitate the smell for a certian period of time
Any fakes of the Xtar VC4 being sold.??
John.
Those look like pretty dubious batteries: Lidl red Tronic battery test | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
Take a poor quality battery, run it dead > it may end up even worse.
NiMh termination is MUCH harder than Li-on CC/CV. Missing termination, or early termination, can indicate a problem with the battery, the charger, or both with a kind of compatibility issue. In this case I would strongly suspect the battery, not the charger. The VC4 is one of the more reliable chargers I’ve had.
I’ve got a few NiMh that don’t terminate properly. Generally they are old and abused, but not always. I’ve had it happen to new AAA Eneloops. I mark them, watch them, and if they continue to do so are trashed.
I read that the Tronic ECO 2400mah were very poor quality, I have 24 of the Tronic AA ECO 2300mah and they are very good (maybe a different manufacturer)
Are the Tronic 2500mah he has the old non LSD professional or the new Tronic ECO LSD 2500mah version.
John.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tronic was just a shrink wrap of whatever they can get their hands on. I can’t imagine a 2500mA AA is LSD, or at least decent LSD.
I just got a VC4 today and I tossed some HE4’s in it to charge and when I checked it they were at 4.22V and still charging with no signs of stopping.
I have an old junk cell in it now charging to see what happens.
Needless to day I am not too happy about this utterly worthless charger, makes me glad I went with a hobby charger up to now, at least with it the voltage is dead on and never overshoots.
I either use a junk cell or a 4.35v cell to test new chargers. I’ve had a couple of the red light/green light cheapies not work so well.
FWIW you are seeing the CV phase of the VC4 charge. It has to ‘over charge’ just a tad to get to the final charge correctly. 0.02v is not a big deal even if it was actually an overcharge, which you’ll have to allow to complete to actually find out.
I’m sure someone else here would be disappointed if it only got to 4.18v. 
It was at 4.22V off the charger and held there for 10 mins before I discharged it and it was not even done charging yet.
Also I find it very odd that the cells get warm on the VC4 when charging yet when I use the imax B6 at even higher charge rates they stay cool?
I guess it is just a confirmation that I made the right choice when I decided to go with the hobby charger.
Just apropos of nothing, I have a couple dozen Amazon Basics LSD High Capacity AA cells that are rated at 2550mAh, and consistently charge to close to that level every time I charge them on my VC4. And yes, they are LSD, as some have been sitting around doing nothing for over a year and still have all their electrons.