Kester Heating And Plumbing

Bob R.

Other reviews talked about how good Dave and his company is, so I had him bid along with 2 others. Dave's price was very fair, and the great things people said about him proved to be true. During the initial walk through, Dave was very thorough in explaining the tax credit and my options for gaining the credit while getting the right furnace, ducts, and A/C unit for my home.
Dave's 3 installers are all great guys and VERY hard workers. While they were installing at my house, my tenant from my rental house called to say his furnace had stopped working. I called Dave late in the afternoon, and within a couple of hours, the tenant had heat again. I strongly recommend this company.
Bob Rosenberg,
San Jose, CA

TheRV I.

I found these guys thru Yelp and I was impressed with their service, we had a vent/duct added to our family room. Jaime actually came out on a Saturday to do our work after a hiccup with a wrong schedule and missed appt. Quick and efficient , nice guy and great cleanup. Dave the owner was very nice too and kept in touch although it is hard to reach him easily and one ends up leaving messages which I hate to do ie nag the contractor. Hope their contact system works better, otehrwise great to work with.

Allison F.

From our first meeting with Dave, to our installation with Jaime and his crew, the whole process of getting a new furnace/ac was awesome.
Dave came out and reviewed our options for the furnace and ac and answered all of our questions. Jaime and his crew were prompt and did a fantastic job. We were told that the job would take one day and by 3pm, we were testing our new furnace and ac. The crew cleaned up and you would never know that someone spent a day working in and out of the house, except for the new equipment!
We are very happy with our new furnace and can't wait to use the AC next summer.
Thank you!

avalon e.

Air con fan gave a loud scrrrreeeeech and died on a hot summer day.
Called Dave and he promptly returned my call.
Got the model number of the Carrier A/C and he walked me through a few simple steps of diags and determined that the motor failed (bearings)
and needs replacement.
He kept me updated on parts availability and got me the replacement part and personally came to install it the next day.
No if you want a sleazy guy who comes with a writing pad and give you an outrageous quote telling you that you need to buy a new AC + furnace (dont tell me you never had that experience) Dave's not the guy.
If you want someone who's courteous competent and professional and does a A++++ clean job then give him a call.
The only problem is that Dave's voicemail prompts seem to act strange sometimes so be patient. Hopefulll he'll get his website up sometime soon so we can email him w questions and requests.
Anyway ALL THUMBS UP!

Hanson J.

My goal was to install one or two mini-split (ductless) heap pump systems in my house. I contacted several contractors and got several estimates that were a bit higher than what I'd expected (one of them was absolutely ridiculous--almost double what the others were quoting).

I called Kester Heating & Air Conditioning and scheduled an estimate with David Kester (you do need to call the mobile number, by the way--I usually got his voicemail, but he usually called back within 24 hours). We had a hiccup the first time--apparently David had arrived early and left because he thought I'd already left for work. I was a little irritated, but we worked out the misunderstanding and he returned to do the estimate a few days later.

David came out and handed me an estimate immediately at the end of our walkthrough, and it was more reasonable than the other quotes I'd received. But I'm picky and I wanted to order specific equipment online. David was willing to work with me and he offered an appropriate price for the labor and miscellaneous installation parts, along with a proviso that he would not cover warranty service since I hadn't purchased the equipment from him.

I ordered the equipment and I called David to schedule the installation after it arrived. On installation day, Jaime and two assistants (José and Carlos) showed up and began the work. Jaime was very courteous and personable, but his assistants José and Carlos were all business and barely acknowledged my presence. It took about 7 hours to install two mini-split units. They did a fairly good job of cleaning up outside at the end of the day (I found a few metal shards here and there though). Inside was a slightly different story.

At the beginning of the job, I asked Jaime if I should put down cardboard or something to protect my new (light-colored) carpet. He said no, they would put down dropcloths (which they did). The only problem is (1) the dropcloths were a little dirty and dusty, and (2) they walked around on the carpet with their shoes on before putting the dropcloths down and after taking them up again. So the carpet got stained, and I found several marks and handprints on the walls as well.

I called David Kester to let him know that the job had been done and everything looked good except for the carpet and wall stains. David called back soon after and he apologized for the problems. He gave me a few choices: cash reimbursement, a professional cleaner, or he could come and clean the carpet himself. The last time I had a ""professional"" cleaner come by (ChemDry), I didn't have a very good experience, so I told him I would just clean the carpet and touch up the walls on my own. I requested a small cash reimbursement, and David agreed to drop it off in the morning.

The next morning I received a call from David, who said he was sending someone to drop off some money for me as well a bottle of carpet cleaner (to borrow) that he personally found to be very effective. He ended up giving me more cash reimbursement than I'd asked for, and the carpet cleaner did work somewhat (not perfect, but it helped, and it wasn't a petroleum-based cleaner that leaves residue).

The Fujitsu mini-split units are running well and I think I got a fair value in the end. Kester did a good job overall. Not everything was perfect, but David did the right thing--he was quick to apologize to his customer, and he went above and beyond to compensate for the trouble. It certainly would have been nice to have avoided the stains in the first place, but nobody's perfect and many businesses could learn a thing or two from David about customer care.

Mr Kitty K.

We called Kester to service our AC units. Dave, the owner, came out, he was on time, price was reasonable and he was very thorough. He recommended a couple of things but did not try to up sell. Kester Heating and AC is a small family owned business and if they have a super busy week you might wait a bit to hear back from them, but they are worth the wait. Great service and super nice people.

Alison S.

I called them around 9am. The owner, Dave Kester, came out at 10am to investigate. He came back at 6pm with the correct part, and by 6:20pm our AC problem was fixed. He was very nice, knowledgable, and really cared about providing a good customer experience. He's my new AC guy and I would recommend Kester to everyone!

Rich L.

Dave Kester is very professional, courteous, and flexible. His quote was about midrange, but the HVAC system he installed had one of the best warranties on the market (10 years), and Dave had one of the best warranties on the labor (he upgraded me to 5 years). He took the time to explain the equipment he installs and the best way to get the rebates from PG & E and the tax credits. His crew (one chief, and a couple of apprentices) seemed to do a good job with the installation. It's a noisy process, but they were very apologetic about the noise b/c they kept waking my 10 week old who was trying to nap through the process.
My only complaint was that they left some dirt on the floor and walls, and some scratches on the drywall trying to get the furnace into the space (it was a tight squeeze). I told Dave about it, and he was very apologetic and was going to send his crew back out to fix the wall and paint. I told him it was no big deal, but that I thought he shoul know about it. Instead, I told him I could fi it myself, so he gave me a small contained of drywall repain compound, and $40 back for my trouble. He REALLY went out of his way to rectify the situation. He is a man who really wants you to have a perfect experience with his service.

Erika H.

The owner, Dave Kester, came out to our home to give us an estimate for installation of an AC unit. He was prompt, professional, and courteous and took the time to explain the proposed work in laymen's terms. He prepared the bid in a few minutes and his rates were comparable/cheaper than others. It was during the height of the last heat wave and I was HUGELY pregnant, so I was in a hurry to get the work done! We scheduled the work for the following week.
A crew of three showed up promptly to perform the work. The head guy, Jaime, was courteous and he and his crew took proper precautions to make sure our house was kept in tact during the work. The guys got it all done in a few hours and they were a pleasure to have in our home.
Thank goodness, our A/C is now up and running and I couldn't have been more pleased with Kester Heating & A/C's work.

Lisa J.

First, I think you have to call 408-640-8035 and NOT 408-492-1222 to have your call returned. I've never had a problem getting Dave to call back using the 640 number, but I've heard from others that he never returned calls at the 492 number.

We installed a complete heating and AC system in our house. Before doing this, we only had one wall heater for the entire house. So, this project involved not only the mechanical units, but the duct work as well. Dave's quote came in well below the quotes of the other companies we contacted.

Aside from giving the estimate and collecting the signed contract, Dave isn't very involved in the project. You deal mostly with his employee Jaime. The three man crew installed the new furnace, duct work and AC unit in 4 days (Tues-Fri). They were relatively clean and really did a great job. Our house is old and the walls/ceiling are plaster, not gypboard. The guy that Dave sent out to patch the area where the wall heater was did a fantastic job matching the texture of the wall.

We absolutely love our new heating/AC system.

Now to the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5. We decided to go through with the city permitting process with the city of Santa Clara. Kester Heating is based in Santa Clara, so we figured no big deal...his business is in SC, he must know what is required. When it came time to schedule the inspection, we were forced to reschedule because a gas line test hadn't been performed. We had to wait until Jaime could come out and do the test for the inspector. Then, while the inspector was there he noted that a dry well hadn't been installed. Jaime called Dave (in my husband's presence) to tell him, so we assumed it would be taken care of. Weeks later it still wasn't done. I called Dave, and he told me that Jaime hadn't informed him of the issue. uh, ok. they came out and finished the work and we finally passed our inspections and the permit was finaled. Maybe the bulk of his work is in SJ and not SC, but I expected that since he filed for the initial permit, that Dave would do all that was required to pass the inspection the first time.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Kester Heating.