Kester Heating And Plumbing

O T.

After two business days, they still haven't returned my call. I used another company who's professionalism was excellent.

Ed M.

I called Kester to see about having some minor new duct work and a good furnace cleaning (the prior owners ran the furnace without a filter for a few years). To be honest, I called a couple of higher-rated (on yelp) people, and none of them returned my calls.

Dave Kester called me back, showed up exactly when he said he would, gave me a reasonable quote, and was friendly and clear throughout. The two guys who showed up to do the work were friendly, professional, and efficient, doing a great job, cleaning up, and finishing within about 10 minutes of their estimate.

I get the sense they keep a small operation intentionally, and small jobs like mine might not fit their usual project scale, but I feel lucky to have found them.

Jody B.

I love nice people! Dave is one of those people.

I called at 9am on a Monday morning after discovering the problem over the weekend. Callback was relatively prompt, around 11:30. Couldn't get on his schedule 'til Thursday morning (boo), but I can't blame him for being busy and he was very nice to talk to on the phone. I've had it with flaky repair people who don't get the job right and overcharge, so I was willing to wait to see if he would be any better.

He arrived on the dot, if not 1 or 2 minutes early. He took his shoes off when he stepped inside the house - which shows a lot of courtesy and respect. Almost no repair/contractors do this!! He was clean and professional in attire and behavior. His manner was very soothing and friendly - I was completely at ease.

When I gave him the scenario about my heater, he explained a couple of things that might need to be replaced - - BUT, maybe it could be solved with a little cleaning and scraping. Hope, hope, hope! In the end, that was all it needed. He couldn't hardly believe it was that easy, and checked his work about 10 times to be sure it was truly fixed. He only charged me for a basic service call. I'm sure many contractors would have just gone ahead and quoted for the full repair & replacement, so I appreciated his honesty.

I requested a quote from him for new furnace and a/c unit, which he was obviously happy to provide, and did so quickly and courteously. I found out through the process that installing new units is his core business, and he only took service calls here and there when he had openings on his schedule, so I guess I was lucky he had time for my little job.

In summary, really nice guy. Honest and knowledgeable. Courteous and professional. You can't go wrong.

Dinesh K.

I had Kester Heating and Air Conditioning replace an old furnace and install a new air conditioner in my house. I spoke to David over phone and I was satisfied with his knowledge. He came over to give an estimate. His quote was reasonable and willingness to go extra mile, if needed, at no extra cost got him the job. He sent two people to do the job and it all finished on one Friday. I was very impressed with the job.

After couple of days I had to call David because furnace was making too much noise and air flow was very strong. He came over the next day with two people and adjusted the flow in the furnace. He also opened an additional hole (or vent?) at the bottom of the furnace and redirected some of the flow into the second half of my house. He did not charge me anything for this work. Everything has been working perfectly since then and I could not be happier.

I get lot of work done in my house but I never bothered to write reviews. I now feel it is only fair to spread the word of goodness if someone goes out of his way to make their customers happy. I hope David will be able to keep up with this and other people who hire him will have the same good experience as I had. God bless.

Grace H.

I called an air duct cleaning service and asked if they can give me some references, they told me that I can find their reference from ""Yelp"" (I didn't know there's Yelp review on the website)
To my surprise that I found Kester Heating & Air conditioning with lots of 5 stars reviews. I had a terrible experience with their service last year during summer when I changed my heater and cooler. Dave, the owner, was professionally present his services and his service overall was good. But the problem is he didn't install the units. His workers who installed the units did a terrible job.
1) First they forgot to turn on the hamper - I mentioned to the guy who installed that the upstairs not seems right because I hardly felt any air came from the vent. He checked and said it was OK. I normally don't turn on cooler so I thought maybe that's the way is. However during the winter when I turn on the heater I definitely could tell there's something wrong. So I phone Dave and he sent the guy back and fixed it (apparently he forgot to adj hamper even though I have mentioned before that the upstairs air flow not seems right)
2) Last year during Nov. I was remodeling downstairs and when contractor changed the mechanic door he mentioned to me that he smelled gas. So I called PG&E and they found out the connection between gas pipe and heater was not tighten. They fixed it.
3) The contractor also mentioned to me that my plenum (a box direct under the cooler/heater in crawl area) was in really bad condition. It touched the dirt and rust badly and should be changed during changed heater (I crawled to see it and agree with him). Now with heater set on top of it will be really hard to change (enormous $). I have mentioned to Dave before they started the job that please checked my air ducts because this is an old house and he did mark on his detail list. But apparently his workers either didn't do it or doesn't care. So the alternative right now was to seal the plenum and Kester suppose need to do it. I called again and the guy installed the unit came back (not Dave) and he check the crawl area and said that he seal inside the plenum from the top when he installed the heater. But when I saw this guy again I was totally loose the confidence on him. So I called another company and they screwed and opened the connection between plenum and air duct and took a picture (I also crawl to see when he opened the platen). No, there's no seal inside the plenum. I spent $900 to seal the inside plenum, seal the heater with seal paint (Kester only put duct tape around the heater and when heater was on the tape all loosing and air blew out from the heater) inspect all ducts and change 2 air ducts.
Looking back I regret that I forgot to ask city inspector to check their work

Roseanne S.

5 stars, impressive personal service!

We recently purchased a 1950s house that is a complete fixer upper. Our first months heating bill was through the roof, so we decided to shut it down and remove the old system so we can do upgrades in the house and later replace it with an efficient system. The house has a 30+ year old furnace and condenser. We searched yelp for a few recommend HVAC companies and called Kester Heating as one of our options. Dave, the owner, personally came over and reviewed the project with us and went through our options. He answered all of our questions and took quite a bit of time with us and provided a detailed quote on the spot for removing our system and later installing a new one. We received quotes from two other companies and was not impressed with their response times and communication, we went with Kester not only because of this but because he was extremely competitive in pricing.

The next week the removal was scheduled, two very courteous guys did a great job and was very conscientious of the surroundings (we have a puppy and have had issues with contractors leaving doors open). The only issue during the process is when the gas was turned back on, the hot water heater couldn't be lit. After 45 minutes of trying to re-light (a very old) hot water heater, I told the guys to go ahead and leave and I'd call PG&E to do it since I was sure it was the water heater's age. Dave called me an hour later and told me he would stop over and give it a try. He came over that evening and replaced an old part that had gone bunk. Kester went above and beyond what was expected here!

We still need to schedule the install of the new system, which will be after we finish some electrical upgrades, but are very confident in their abilities and couldn't recommend them more.

Thanks Dave, for making this part of our project very easy and seamless!

ChristIne A.

Received a prompt return call from Kester Heating. He was out the following workday, on time, as scheduled. He explained all parts of the furnace and where the problem was. He put in a new transformer and explained its function. Appt. took less than 1 hour. Cost was $160 inclusive of labor and part ($40.)

Mr. Kester is the owner of the company and a pleasure to deal with. I would call him again if I had a furnace or A/C problem. I would recommend him to friends.

Leah S.

We called Kester Heating & Air to come out and give us a quote to replace our furnace and install a central air conditioning system in our condo. We asked for a Saturday appointment, which he balked at but ultimately agreed to (said we were ""ruining"" his Saturday).

Saturday comes, but Kester doesn't. No show, no call, no nothing. Totally unprofessional.

AAA Furnace and Air Conditioning was wonderful, showed up on time and installed our system last week. I guess our measly job wasn't important enough to Kester.

Mike R.

We needed to upgrade our 40 yr old furnace and decided it was time to install central AC. We shopped around and received five different bids, company profiles were varied. We took our time reviewing the contracts/hardware/warranties and of course our experiences during the consults. While Kester didn't have the lowest or the highest $ bid, we felt most comfortable with Dave and decided to go with him.

Obviously the majority of the reviews here give Kester glowing feedback and praise for his knowledge, workmanship, and overall human touch to satisfying his customers. Our experience was no different, we couldn't be happier with the process and the end product, especially the extra little touches which were either included in the package or came w/ a minimal mark-up. The outdoor temp sensor integrated into the LCD touch thermostat is a pretty cool feature. The Trane hardware he recommended for our home was superior to the other models we were quoted, and they had it for less.

While it wasn't a completely seamless process (we did have a minor hiccup which was caused by our indecisiveness) Kester and his crew were very patient and understanding of our decision to move the AC unit after they had completed more than half of the install process. Lastly, I learned from Dave that Trane made a premium AC cover (I'm a brand snob so instead of opting for a generic AC unit cover at Home Depot) I asked him to order me one and send me a bill. Well, a few days after we had paid him in full for the job, a brand new premium Trane AC cover was on my doorstep accompanied with an invoice that was ""Taken Care Of.""

Thank you and your crew Dave! We're loving the furnace (and the money we've saved so far on our PG&E bills) and look forward to running that glorious AC in a few weeks!

Mike

Jan P.

We called for a general estimate for our condo regarding air vent cleaning. Dave called back within fifteen minutes to say that air vent cleaning is not a provided service, but rather that they service heating and air systems. He was cordial and professional and we really appreciated his prompt reply. Hopefully we won't have any system problems in the future, but plan on calling Kester if we do.