The original Ceado E37S is among our all-time favorite grinders. With massive 83mm burrs, a powerful 400-watt motor, extremely accurate timed grinding and NSF and UL approval, it’s an impressive grinder perfect for at-home or in commercial use but still accessible to high-end home users.
The E37S has been an incredibly successful grinder for Ceado. While some manufacturers have made very few changes to their designs over the years, Ceado redefined espresso grinding with their steady-lock design for locked-in grind size. It’s also one of the very few grinders that allow you to get into the grinding chamber with no need to recalibrate after putting it back together.
Features
The E37S has some upgrades — more on those in a minute and there’s an upgraded E37J model. In this blog, we’ll get a close up look at upgrades to the E37S, a specification comparison between the S and the J model and I’ll have results of testing including grind times, dose to dose weight accuracy of timed grinding and we’ll take a look at grind retention.
So, the E37S has a redesigned grinding chamber and discharge area including a chute and gate which self-adjusts to control static and clumping. Also, a redesigned adjustable portafilter holder which is included with the grinder and works with single, double and naked portafilters for hands-free grinding.
The E37J is nearly identical in appearance to the S model but uses a smaller burr set and motor. I’ll have the spec comparison chart in a moment. Sitting side by side, the only way to tell the difference between the S and J models are the 3 vents on each side of the more powerful S model’s top plate and if you look closely, that plate is larger as well. Both grinders are available in silver and black finishes.
Both the S and J models feature Ceado’s steady lock system, quick set revolution, and silent system. Steady lock keeps grind size consistent regardless of thermal expansion, the quick set revolution allows for smooth infinitesimal stepless grind size adjustment.
A couple of real benefits with that. First, the grinding chamber is isolated from the threads of the adjustment mechanism. In other grinders, coffee and oils get into those threads and as they gum up adjustment becomes difficult. And cleaning out gummed up threads, yeah, it’s a real pain in the rear with some grinders. Second, with the top burr attached to the burr carrier and plate assembly you can access the grinding chamber for easy cleaning. Just remove 3 screws and you’re in for cleaning or other maintenance. When you put it back together the previous grind setting is maintained. So there’s no need for recalibration or dialing in your grind size again—that saves a lot of time and coffee!
The silent system uses special isolating motor mounts to reduce noise. Ceado says their silent system makes for a grinder that’s 30% quieter than the competition.
So let’s take a look at specs and see just where these grinders differ. The overall height is identical on both at 17.25 inches with the hopper lid in place.
The major difference between the models is burr size and motor power. The E37J uses a 64mm burr set and a 300-watt motor. The E37S has massive 83mm burrs turned by a 400-watt motor. Ceado says the average coffee output at espresso grind size is two grams per second on the J model and 5 grams per second on the S model. Burrs spin at 1650 RPMs on the J model and 1700 on the S model.
A note on overall height—you may see the E37S in some places with a much taller hopper. But in a special arrangement, we made with Ceado our E37S models ship with the shorter hopper so they’ll fit under the eighteen-inch overhanging cabinetry commonly found in US homes.
Both grinders use the same control panel. You can program single and double shot doses by time in a tenth of a second interval or dose manually so grinding starts when the portafilter activated switch is pushed in and stops when released. You can change the start mode to pulse off, pulse on, or dose with start. With pulse off, the portafilter activated switch must be held in for the entire dose. If you let go you can push again to continue the dose. With pulse on, a single push and release of the switch delivers the entire dose selected on the control panel. When set to dose with start, a single push with a portafilter delivers a single dose and a quick double push delivers a double dose. Also on the control panel, you can access dose counters for single, double and total doses, worn burr alerts, and change the language.
Results
So let’s take a look at my test results for grind times, dose to dose weight accuracy of timed grinding and grind retention.
For grind times, I set each to deliver an espresso grind size, ground 5 times at 5 seconds and averaged the results to come up with grams per second. The E37J came in at 2.22 grams per second and the E37S averaged 5.16 grams per second. Those results are in line with Ceado’s ratings of 2 and 5 grams per second at espresso grind sizes.
To measure weight consistency of timed grinding I set each grinder to a time to deliver a double shot dose of about 17 grams based on the average grams per second from the previous test. That worked out to 7.7 seconds on the J and 3.3 seconds on the S. I then ground 5 times at that time setting. The maximum variation on the J model was three-tenths of a gram while the S model had a max variation of 1 gram. The three-tenths variation on the J model is impressive and the one gram variation on the S is respectable.
To appraise grind retention I closed off the bean hoppers and ran the grinders until no more ground coffee came out of the chutes. I then removed the top burr assembly and carefully cleaned out any remaining ground coffee. The E37 J retained quite a bit more coming in at a little over five and a half grams while the E37S retained a hair over a half a gram. That half gram retention is about the best I’ve ever seen from this style of a grinder. A truly impressive result. The higher retention in the J model is likely the result of a slightly longer horizontal space between the grinding chamber and chute and more open space within the grinding chamber.
As to the quality of the grinds, both models produce a beautiful, fluffy and clump-free grind that delivers nicely centered into a portafilter with little to no spill. The larger 83mm burrs in the S model certainly work a lot faster and larger burrs generally produce a slightly more consistent particle size.
Conclusion
Overall, we’re happy Ceado continues to improve on the successful E37 grinder. The addition of the J model offers a lower price point for those looking for a modern commercial grinder. It takes a little longer to do its thing and retains more ground coffee but we are very impressed with its dosing consistency of 0.3 grams. The E37S is a fast and powerful grinder with very little retention. Both are smooth and quiet and we love the ease of access to the grinding chamber and a design that doesn’t require recalibration and keeps coffee from gumming up grind size adjustments - a very common issue with some grinders.
That’s the Ceado E37J and E37S. Both available in silver or black from Whole Latte Love. Come back soon for more of the good stuff on everything coffee brought to you by Whole Latte Love.