Why type of flat top/button top not mentioned in product description?

Hi,

Question from a total ignorant, pardon me in advance for any silly question. I buy flashlight & headlamp on eBay. To use for hiking or long walk in the evening.

The eBay seller can throw in a 18650 battery for an extra $1. Those are certainly bad batteries. Which I would like to replace with brand name batteries. However I am confused about flat top vs button top. In a few weeks I will receive the lights and would figure out the exact type of battery to buy.

What puzzles me is that I never see the mention of the battery style flat top/button top in the product description of the items I had reviewed. Would that mean light products are designed to accommodate either type of Li-ion battery top?

It is literally as they say, one has a flat top where the positive terminal of the battery is and the other has a small button on top where the positive terminal is. A typical AA battery you would find almost anywhere is a good example of a button top cell. If you double the size of the button and make it flush with the top of the cell...that is roughly what a flat-top cell is like. In both there is an insulator around it but it is not always visible or at least immediately noticeable.

Yes, many flashlight designs can use either style and usually will specify if they can only function with one type or the other. As an ebay seller they may simply have an older, lower capacity cell that they don't mind getting rid of inexpensively and it could potentially be of decent manufacture.

lightfooted said:

Yes, many flashlight designs can use either style and usually will specify if they can only function with one type or the other. As an ebay seller they may simply have an older, lower capacity cell that they don't mind getting rid of inexpensively and it could potentially be of decent manufacture.

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Ok cool. Good to know that flashlight can accept either flat top or button top. I was planning to buy brand name flat top 18650 cells in advance, before receiving the lights. But I think it's safer to wait until I get the products to confirm if they could work with flat top style cells.

Wawona said:

Hi,

Question from a total ignorant, pardon me in advance for any silly question. I buy flashlight & headlamp on eBay. To use for hiking or long walk in the evening.

The eBay seller can throw in a 18650 battery for an extra $1. Those are certainly bad batteries. Which I would like to replace with brand name batteries. However I am confused about flat top vs button top. In a few weeks I will receive the lights and would figure out the exact type of battery to buy.

What puzzles me is that I never see the mention of the battery style flat top/button top in the product description of the items I had reviewed. Would that mean light products are designed to accommodate either type of Li-ion battery top?

Click to expand...

One part of them never mentioning if it's a button top or flat top is because they deal with non-flashaholics, so it's easier to not mention anything for most of them unless the flashlight quite literally won't work without a flat top/button top. Some of the Fenix flashlights are good examples of this since they physically require the button unless you mod them, or the BLF FWXX lights that can't fit a button top in them and has that mentioned.

If you've seen a shot of the inside of it or have confirmation you have springs on both ends you can use flat tops too, otherwise chances are you'll have to go with button tops since most manufacturers just make that the norm for their flashlights.

LRJ88 said:

If you've seen a shot of the inside of it or have confirmation you have springs on both ends you can use flat tops too, otherwise chances are you'll have to go with button tops since most manufacturers just make that the norm for their flashlights.

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Thanks for the info. I have tried to search for images. All those I found are not obvious enough. For example showing only the side having the spring. Asking the seller is not guaranteed to have a good answer. The eBay operator who answered could be a simple clerk who may never see the product and may not even understand the question. In anyway, the light will be delivered in a week or 2 and I will see.

Wawona said:

Thanks for the info. I have tried to search for images. All those I found are not obvious enough. For example showing only the side having the spring. Asking the seller is not guaranteed to have a good answer. The eBay operator who answered could be a simple clerk who may never see the product and may not even understand the question. In anyway, the light will be delivered in a week or 2 and I will see.

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What flashlight is it, if you don't mind me asking?

LRJ88 said:

What flashlight is it, if you don't mind me asking?

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Generic Chinese lights on eBay. See photo in this post Single cell 18650, 3500 mAh, can it last at least 2 hours hike?
Problem solved though. I asked the seller who re-confirmed that the headlamp must use button top style. So I went ahead and ordered button top Samsung INR-18650-35E.