Certainly for ordinary Ni-Mh AAA - 0.7A is a lot. But this is LSD AAA N-Mh LADDA from IKEA, for them a current of up to 0.6C is normal. By the way, Xtar VC4S and VC2S installs automatically the charging current 2A for this cell - and this is already too much, but apparently Xtar does not think so.
0.2A is only the starting charge current, then the charger will set a charge current of at least 0.4A. And on the passport min charge current 0.5A.
Most likely you are charging old cells. What is their internal resistance?
I have this charger, when inserting a cell AAA LADDA Ni-MH with internal resistance 50mΩ, it exposes the charge current 2A.
I charged my relative new Ikea Ladda AA 2450 mAh batteries at 1.0A in my Lii-500. One of them got very hot, I guess over 60 degrees Celsius. Think I will go for 0.5A charging.
For NiMH I will always use my Powerex C9000. I can set the charge current for each individual cell at anything between .1A and 2.0A. No surprises that way.
So Banggood is back to $42 on this charger, and it’s not yet on Amazon. Are there any other retailers that might be selling it at a good price ( < $30 ) in the near future?
It’s a great deal. I used the M4DM4X code to grab one for under $30.
However, they did not send me the U.S. plug adapter as promised on the product page. I only got the EU plug. I’m working with Banggood to get this resolved.
I forget if Banggood gives you a place to make comments about your order (I’m thinking they don’t). But if they do, and you order one, I suggest you remind them to include the plug adapter for your country.