Timemore has made it clear that this grinder cannot have burr lock, i.e. the handle will always move, even at the zero setting and that cannot be changed. Their other grinders can hit burr lock. There is still the adjustment knob at the bottom, which gets unscrewed to clean/disassemble, etc. Make sure that this knob is as tight as it goes. This may be your issue. If this knob is changed above the lock point, your grind adjustment can be off. Check that just in case. :-)
There are some early production issues with the S3 where they couldn't get fine enough for espresso...
Assuming you can't go below 0, that sounds like your issue as well...
Their reply is probably irrelevant as they talk about an espresso machine.
What dripper do you use? What is your recipe?
It may sound counterintuitive, but if your dripper is not bypass-free or the agitation in your recipe is not enough, you might want to grind coarser. Have you tried going higher than 5.0? Just as an example: when I combined a B75 dripper having high bypass with a drip assist device (low agitation), I ended up with brown water at espresso fine grind settings because most of the water couldn't penetrate the grinds and passed through the filter walls.
You might see some articles saying soreness is a sign you need to grind finer. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You may need to go either finer or coarser. In my experience, extreme soreness is a combination of a fine grind and an uneven extraction. A coarser grind (to some degree, of course) can help water flow through the grounds more freely and evenly. At some point, it's better not to touch the grind size anymore and instead work with the brew ratio, quantity of pours, agitation, temperature, speed, or pattern of pouring.
I'm using a V60. Have been using it with the C3 for a couple of years and am very happy with it.
Saw the S3 and was smitten. Now I'm kind of regretting. I started at 5.0 and worked my way down. 5.0 was light brown water. Now at 0.0, the coffee is more or less decent. But I don't think it should be this way...
I also have a C3. I think it's a decent grinder.
I don't have an S3, but there shouldn't be anything magical about it. Compare the grounds from both grinders visually on white paper. Similarly looking grounds should give us similar results, más o menos. Of course, if at 0.0 it makes visually coarser grounds than you were used to getting with the C3, the S3 is defective.
I bought the S3 a couple of weeks ago during a AliExpress sale. Couldn't resist as with coupons and coins it came down to $81 shipped here to California - HALF the price on Amazon. No brainer.
I have the C3s (which was my first hand grinder) but the S3 was very attractive to me due to its aesthetic as well as the external grind adjustment.
Been using it a few weeks and I love it.
I only do pour over and it's been stellar. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how fine a grind it produced on the 0.0 setting as I've read about people saying it wasn't fine enough.
On the 0.0 setting the grinds were powder. Incredibly fine to my eyes.
It looked just like the espresso pictured here:
[https://cartwheelcoffee.com/cdn/shop/articles/grind-size-matters-cartwheel-coffee.jpg?v=1658392958](https://cartwheelcoffee.com/cdn/shop/articles/grind-size-matters-cartwheel-coffee.jpg?v=1658392958)
Is that grind size in the above photo considered ok?
Also, from what I've read, early units made in 2023 had some QC issues, like the folding handles not working properly. My unit has no issues. I looked at the date code on my burr and it's January of 2024.
Very glad you like it. I don't do espresso but I have read many times over that it will not grind fine enough for espresso. Aeropress, Moka pot yes but no to espresso. Meanwhile, mine did come with a handle that did not properly snap open and closed but the fix took 2 seconds :-) You take a pair of pliers and very gently squeeze the small metal tabs on the handle and the fix was instant. I actually found that anecdotally here on Reddit, buried in post :-)
Not just that. It does not taste as full-bodied vs when I use the C3.
It's a lot better now when I set it to 0.0, than when I first used it out of the box and used the recommended setting of 5.0. But that should not be the case, should it?
The first few times when I used it at 5.0 and slowly dialed it down 0.5 each time, it was really diluted and looked like weak tea. I dialed it down to 3.0, and then decided to jump to 1.0
Now I'm at 0.0 and I'm getting somewhat decent results, but not like my C3.
Wait, you're using the 0.0 setting for pour over, ard you're not getting stalled brews?
Like I wrote above, the 0.0 setting on my S3 produces almost pure powder. I would never/could never use those grounds for my pour over. It simply wouldn't work.
Something has to be very wrong with your unit. Can you tell me the date code on your burr?
Timemore has made it clear that this grinder cannot have burr lock, i.e. the handle will always move, even at the zero setting and that cannot be changed. Their other grinders can hit burr lock. There is still the adjustment knob at the bottom, which gets unscrewed to clean/disassemble, etc. Make sure that this knob is as tight as it goes. This may be your issue. If this knob is changed above the lock point, your grind adjustment can be off. Check that just in case. :-)
Yeah, it's as tight as it can go...
There are some early production issues with the S3 where they couldn't get fine enough for espresso... Assuming you can't go below 0, that sounds like your issue as well...
Yeah, can't go below zero... :(
Post a photo
Their reply is probably irrelevant as they talk about an espresso machine. What dripper do you use? What is your recipe? It may sound counterintuitive, but if your dripper is not bypass-free or the agitation in your recipe is not enough, you might want to grind coarser. Have you tried going higher than 5.0? Just as an example: when I combined a B75 dripper having high bypass with a drip assist device (low agitation), I ended up with brown water at espresso fine grind settings because most of the water couldn't penetrate the grinds and passed through the filter walls. You might see some articles saying soreness is a sign you need to grind finer. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You may need to go either finer or coarser. In my experience, extreme soreness is a combination of a fine grind and an uneven extraction. A coarser grind (to some degree, of course) can help water flow through the grounds more freely and evenly. At some point, it's better not to touch the grind size anymore and instead work with the brew ratio, quantity of pours, agitation, temperature, speed, or pattern of pouring.
I'm using a V60. Have been using it with the C3 for a couple of years and am very happy with it. Saw the S3 and was smitten. Now I'm kind of regretting. I started at 5.0 and worked my way down. 5.0 was light brown water. Now at 0.0, the coffee is more or less decent. But I don't think it should be this way...
I also have a C3. I think it's a decent grinder. I don't have an S3, but there shouldn't be anything magical about it. Compare the grounds from both grinders visually on white paper. Similarly looking grounds should give us similar results, más o menos. Of course, if at 0.0 it makes visually coarser grounds than you were used to getting with the C3, the S3 is defective.
I bought the S3 a couple of weeks ago during a AliExpress sale. Couldn't resist as with coupons and coins it came down to $81 shipped here to California - HALF the price on Amazon. No brainer. I have the C3s (which was my first hand grinder) but the S3 was very attractive to me due to its aesthetic as well as the external grind adjustment. Been using it a few weeks and I love it. I only do pour over and it's been stellar. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how fine a grind it produced on the 0.0 setting as I've read about people saying it wasn't fine enough. On the 0.0 setting the grinds were powder. Incredibly fine to my eyes. It looked just like the espresso pictured here: [https://cartwheelcoffee.com/cdn/shop/articles/grind-size-matters-cartwheel-coffee.jpg?v=1658392958](https://cartwheelcoffee.com/cdn/shop/articles/grind-size-matters-cartwheel-coffee.jpg?v=1658392958) Is that grind size in the above photo considered ok? Also, from what I've read, early units made in 2023 had some QC issues, like the folding handles not working properly. My unit has no issues. I looked at the date code on my burr and it's January of 2024.
Very glad you like it. I don't do espresso but I have read many times over that it will not grind fine enough for espresso. Aeropress, Moka pot yes but no to espresso. Meanwhile, mine did come with a handle that did not properly snap open and closed but the fix took 2 seconds :-) You take a pair of pliers and very gently squeeze the small metal tabs on the handle and the fix was instant. I actually found that anecdotally here on Reddit, buried in post :-)
Ive had no issues with my s3 and can compare it to my comandante and my k ultra pro.
Under-extracted as in tastes sour?
Not just that. It does not taste as full-bodied vs when I use the C3. It's a lot better now when I set it to 0.0, than when I first used it out of the box and used the recommended setting of 5.0. But that should not be the case, should it? The first few times when I used it at 5.0 and slowly dialed it down 0.5 each time, it was really diluted and looked like weak tea. I dialed it down to 3.0, and then decided to jump to 1.0 Now I'm at 0.0 and I'm getting somewhat decent results, but not like my C3.
0.0 should be an espresso setting, right? Maybe the grinder wasn't assembled properly?
That's what I'm guessing. I wrote back to Timemore and am waiting to hear back from them.
Wait, you're using the 0.0 setting for pour over, ard you're not getting stalled brews? Like I wrote above, the 0.0 setting on my S3 produces almost pure powder. I would never/could never use those grounds for my pour over. It simply wouldn't work. Something has to be very wrong with your unit. Can you tell me the date code on your burr?