18650 lights with 18350 tube..flat or button top?

Just curious what the standard is… will you need button top 18350 if it needs a button top 18650? What about lights that will run either top?

If the light has a forward spring, or just a post with no reverse polarity protrusions, then just use flat tops, is my thought.

Chris

So would it be best to buy flat tops and use magnets to convert them?

If a particular light is able to run flat top 18650s (or whatever cell,) then it can run a flat top 18350 with the appropriate 18350 battery tube.

I never do magnets, preferring to save my pennies and buy the appropriate cell for a particular light.

Chris

Thanks. I just checked my sofirn sc31b &sp31. Both came with button top but do have a spring up top and do run with my flat tops.
Hoping it will be the same with 18350 tube. D4V2 i know will run flat top 18350, so then its just a question about the ft03 mini has springs like the ft03 and im well on my way to pinching a few pennies buying all these flashlights i really don’t need :beer:

Some lights don’t have the reverse polarity protrusions, nor a forward spring, but just a short ‘post,’ so flat tops will still work. My Sunwayman V11R and M11R have these and work with flat tops, even with no springs.

The tube really doesn’t come into play, so if you can run flat top 18650s in the standard configuration, you will be able to run flat top 18350s with a proper 18350 tube and even vice-versa, vis-a-vis flat/button tops.

Good luck!

Chris

From what I’ve seen (of course there might be exceptions), the only lights which need BTs are those with just the contact-board. No spring, no nipple, no nuttin’.

And even with the plain contact-board, a small solder-blob on the center pad lets you use FTs.