After a month of using it, 4 to 6 shots a day, I would say that this machine is not as impressive as I thought it would be.
Pros:
Beautiful constructed piece of equipment
Easy to understand the dial in/out
Low retention?
Low noise (really) very low noise compared to my beloved Mazzer mini E
Fluffy Coffee all the time no clumps at all.
Delicious coffee taste when you get the proper dial.
Fast grind time.

Cons:
I couldn't get consistency even with a really fresh coffee, I have followed all the instructions by the book and sometimes I get 20 sec extraction 40 sec extraction 30 sec extraction, with the same dial, same coffee, same technique. Really frustrating.
I bought it from WLL, and their suggestions are not unanimous:
"You need to break in the burrs, use 1 pound of coffee"
"You need to grind a least 10 pounds in order to get consistency"
And yesterday's customer support ask me to grind coarser,

I thought for a moment that my Rocket HX was the problem, but I tested again with the same coffee with the Mazzer Mini E, and the extraction times were almost the same all the time (3 sec difference) with the Mazzer.
I use OCD for distribution, and Pullman Palm Tamper.
The bellows is a joke, because you have to use and additional brush to take out all the leftovers,
Very messy if you grind directly to the portafilter even with the funnel attached.
You can not fit a naked portafilter, bad design. It needs an adapter in order to hold the naked portafilter.
I don't understand why you have to turn on the grinder before drop the beans.

You have to use the spray always, otherwise you will get the grinder exhaust walls with coffee.
For a US 2400.00 grinder it has so many issues.

Any ideas?

Maybe some with e37s who are single dosing can be of use ?

I'm using the hopper with my e37s and have had consistent results both for weight and grind size. This is of no use for single dosing comparison.

I'm surprised WLL haven't been able to help more. Maybe the can test on their side and report back.

At this price, I agree, results in the cup shouldn't be random...

I have an E37s that I single dose, and I generally have very consistent results. I did buy it used, so the "break it in" variable didn't apply to me. That can indeed be an issue, I'd suggest using some instant rice if you feel you need to break it in. That said, you can't use much of it at a time, I found it will essentially get stuck with the load of instant rice (I had an HG-1 previously, and got a great workout putting about 10lb of instant rice through it), and watch for overheating.

Having switched grinders about 5 times now, I have found that each grinder change comes with a need to adjust my prep technique. Maybe it's differences in distribution in the filter? I generally grind into a cup, pour grounds into filter, use a WDT tool to evenly distribute grounds (a wine cork with a few needles in it), OCD tool to level, then tamp. For each grind, I use the RDT technique (a spray or drop of water), and retention is near zero, but yes its necessary every time. I don't turn on the grinder before I drop in beans, not sure where that comes from.

I would normally suggest more break in, but if you're at ~5lb through the grinder that shouldn't be (as much) the issue. I did have a similar experience where I wasn't making great shots out of the box, but after some tweaks in prep methods I got to a good place and have been happy since. I've also been single dosing, with much of the same ritual (RDT, WDT, etc) for each shot for a good while, so those things don't bother me as much.

I will try another approach to the grinding and dialing

hvmcoffee wrote: I use OCD for distribution, and Pullman Palm Tamper.

I don't understand why you have to turn on the grinder before drop the beans.

For the distribution, I think most (if not all) single dosing grinders can benefit from stirring up the grounds bit. The beans will grind differently depending on if they are at the beginning or end of the dose and you want to mix them all up. This may make your shot times more consistent.

I'm not too familiar with the grinder, so I don't know if turning the grinder on before adding beans is a requirement or suggestion. But either way, this is supposed to be better because the burrs spin at different speeds as the grinder starts up which can cause further variation in the grind size, but if you have the grinder running already then all beans should see the same burr speed.

GregoryJ wrote: I'm not too familiar with the grinder, so I don't know if turning the grinder on before adding beans is a requirement or suggestion. But either way, this is supposed to be better because the burrs spin at different speeds as the grinder starts up which can cause further variation in the grind size, but if you have the grinder running already then all beans should see the same burr speed.

Makes total sense.

That's interesting. Kind of a shame though, it's a beautiful grinder. You could always get the very popular and much more affordable (albeit less attractive) Niche Zero.

Maybe give it time though - I am sure I've read that these machines are inconsistent when new until the burrs are thoroughly broken in. Like many pounds.

The E37SD brochures state: "The coffee beans go straight into the grinding chamber. When the zero-retention bellows attachment is tapped with the hand, the ground coffee comes right out of the grinding chamber, resetting it for another single dose."

This grinder is not a Zero Retention system.

I single dose, weighing each dose to the tenth of a gram. When I pour the beans in and run the grinder until it stops producing coffee, then put the filter into my Speedster, I get extraction times that vary by 10 seconds or so which means that much of the coffee is undrinkable. After a couple of weeks of experimentation and analysis I determined that the problem was simply that the Zero Retention grinder was not actually a Zero Retention grinder unless the user starts and stops the motor another ten times or so. Each of those ten times will produce additional ground coffee and the sum of all the additional coffee produced is significant enough to cause the large variations in extraction that was experienced. The motor torque creates enough of a "jog" to eject the coffee that has been retained but in order to extract all the coffee from a grind you have to restart the motor ten times or so otherwise the coffee stays in the grinder and becomes stale and screws up your carefully weighed doses. Rerunning the E37SD motor ten times or so is the only way to come close to a Zero Retention system, simply bumping the grinder with your had does not jog the retained coffee loose. One would think that Credo and/or Whole Latte Love would have figured this out for a $2,000.00+ "Zero Retention" grinder.

I will try the start & stop the motor several times, because 10 Second variation for me is not acceptable

What puzzles me, is that members have been successful using the E37S for single dosing yet the dedicated single dosing grinder fails to do what it's designed for.

Surely Ceado and WLL have something to say ?

I wonder if the e37z suffers from the same problems.