Charlotte owned since 1998
We got tired of how this trade treats people
Kessler is a second-generation family business. Everything unusual about how we operate exists because of something that annoyed us as customers first.
The owner
“My dad started this with one van. The first thing I changed was how the technicians get paid.”
Dave grew up in the back of that van. He took the business over from his father in 2011 and moved every technician onto salary inside the first year, because he was tired of customers asking him whether they were being told the truth.
He still runs calls on the worst days of the summer. His reasoning is that you lose the plot if you stop, and that the only honest way to know whether a 2-hour window is real is to be the one sitting in traffic trying to make one.
Dave Kessler
Owner since 2011 · second generation
The commission thing
Most HVAC technicians are paid a percentage of what they sell. It is the industry standard and almost nobody mentions it out loud. It also means the person diagnosing your system earns more if the answer is replacement.
Dave took over from his father in 2011 and moved every technician onto salary within the first year. It cost money in the short term. What it bought was the ability to send someone out, have them fit a $340 capacitor on a nineteen-year-old system, and tell you honestly that it will probably hold for two more summers.
Nobody here earns an extra dollar from that conversation going one way or the other. That is the whole point, and it is why we can offer written second opinions on other companies' quotes for free.
How we ended up here
Every policy started as a complaint.
1998
Ed Kessler starts the business
One van, one technician, working out of a garage off Burnet Road. The address has not changed.
2011
Salary replaces commission
Dave takes over and removes every sales incentive from the technician pay structure in his first year.
2016
Two-hour arrival windows
After enough customers told us an all-day window had cost them a day of work, we rebuilt routing around it.
2021
Prices published openly
The February freeze showed us how many people were being quoted whatever the market would bear. We put our ranges on the website instead.
Who turns up
The people who will be in your house.
Background checked every year. Paid a salary, never commission. Most have been here over a decade.
Dave Kessler
Ownersince 1998
Took over the business from his father in 2011. Still runs calls on the worst days of the summer because he says you lose the plot if you stop.
- NATE
- EPA 608
Renata Kessler
Operationssince 2004
Builds the daily routes and decides who gets moved up the queue. If you called about an elderly parent or a newborn, she is the reason someone came early.
Diego Marrero
Lead Techniciansince 2009
Seventeen years in Charlotte attics. Can usually name the fault from the sound the system makes before he opens anything.
- NATE
- EPA 608
Mateo Salazar
Install Leadsince 2015
Runs the install crews and does every Manual J load calculation himself. Has turned down jobs where the customer insisted on a system he knew was oversized.
- NATE
- EPA 608
Marcus Tuiloma
Service Techniciansince 2018
Handles most of the overnight emergency rotation. Says the 2am calls are the ones that actually matter.
- NATE
- EPA 608
Hannah Reyes
Service Techniciansince 2021
Came up through the apprenticeship program. Does the indoor air quality diagnostics and knows more about pollen season than anyone should have to.
- EPA 608
Every technician is background checked annually and paid a salary. Nobody here earns more by selling you something you did not need.
Local means something specific
We have been in the same building since 1998. Our technicians live in the cities they serve, which is why they know that a Dilworth bungalow has crawl space duct problems and an Indian Trail build has disconnected runs above the ceiling, before they open anything.
It also means that during the 2021 freeze we were working on our own neighbours' houses. That is not a marketing line. It is just what happens when the company is actually from here.
Your AC quit. Cold air by tonight.
Two ways to start. Pick whichever suits the state you are in right now.
We call back within 30 minutes during business hours. Licensed H3-XXXXX.