Kester Heating And Plumbing

Tim E.

0 Stars, i called them, left a message, said they would call back within the hour, 4 days later, still waiting.

Obviously they are too busy or not interested in a several thousand dollar project. Would worry that the same problem would occur if i try and get them to fix what they installed.

Randy O.

We just had our furnace reparied by Kester Heating. I give them my highest recommendation. Dave Kester came out to do the repairs himself; he is courteous and professional. He had to replace a control board in the furnace; we had a similar board replaced in our larger unit 5 years ago, and the cost then (using a different company) was almost double of what Dave charged me today.

Keep in mind that Dave runs a small shop - so he may not be able to immediately get to you - I had to wait a few days for him to come out - however - it's worth the wait. I can tell you that other shops would have rescheduled a week later to return with the control board, Dave said he would return within a few hours, which he did.

Michael L.

Of course, the furnace fails in December! How does it know to wait until the coldest time of year?

I am happy to report I received a courteous, fast and competent response from Kester Heating. (I called a big, brand-name company first but was left on hold.) Although slightly more expensive than another service I spoke with, I really appreciated how the crew patiently explained everything that was involved in rehabilitating my tired furnace.

Dave, the owner, followed-up a few days later to make sure the heat was still running fine. I would definitely call Kester again.

Update to the above review:
2 years later, in May 2012, I needed a minor repair to my heating ducts in different home. I did not shop around, I called only Kester. Again, I was very satisfied with the prompt service.

In my experience, it has often difficult to get fast service at reasonable costs for a small project. And, while Kester would probably prefer to not to do a bunch of small projects--their service on this one guarantees they will get my business for the next big heating project at another of my properties.

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!