18650 terminal compounded by zebralight

I know this has been discussed multiple times. But it's gotten so bad on one of my cells that I thought the light was malfunctioning. But it would seem the pogo pins aren't making proper contact anymore.

I know it's because I drop my flashlight a lot at work onto concrete.

My question is has anyone found a viable solution for prying the top of the terminal back up? I know most of you are just gonna say toss it, lol. But I was curious if anyone had a decent method.


Annihilated lol.

Are you sure the pins are broken or are your cells so dented they don't reliably make contact?

Edit: Sorry, didn't read your question correctly. For future reference, if you have one of the old versions with a low pin count, supposedly ZL will upgrade it to the latest configuration for the usual out of warranty service fee ($15?).

I would suggest using a very thin flat screwdriver. Use an old credit card as a base to rest on while lifting the terminal up.
You do NOT want to damage the top end of the cell (i.e. the area under the terminal). Mind that this is the part that has the overpressure "valve" which you do not want to mess with in any way for obvious reasons .

A suggestion from CPF to mitigate future damage is to drop in an o-ring that sits around the pogo pins and cussions the cell when you drop the light. You will have to try different sizes and thicknesses.

Ohh I haven't heard of the o-ring suggestion but it makes great sense! I wonder if anyone has found a specific one that works.

I'm using the latest Zebralight with 6 pins on each side. I'm gonna attach a picture of the cell of the original post.

Thanks for the great ideas.

I know the reasons for the pins but I hate the darn pins.