Holzmueller Productions

I rented a dried ice machine from this company at $ 200/​week for my wedding for our first dance. The piece of c#$p did not work!!! even though we followed the instructions they gave us not to mention wasted over $ 100 on the dried ice and when I complained, they simply said that if turns on then it is operable. They never had it tested with actual dried ice!
I should have known better when the employee after loading up the machine into my truck told me (I would experiment first with this machine if I were you). Like i have 75 pounds of dried ice to throw away and nothing to do 2 days before the wedding…
Not even an adjustment or a partial refund!!!
STAY AWAY!!!

I’ve been using Holzmueller for the past few years and unfortunately, their customer service has been declining to the point where it’s now virtually non existent.
We spend a couple of thousand a year on expendables, which apparently from the way I’m treated by Holzmueller staff is insignificant and my purchases seem to be more of a bother to them, wasting their time.
The sad thing is, if they kept more items actually in stock (and at more reasonable prices) I would be buying more than double this amount each year. They used to be a good source for basic cables and accessories, but over the last 6 months especially, I’ve noticed that half of whatever I ask for is always out of stock.
Tonight was the last straw for me, their expendables department is supposed to close at 5pm and I needed a couple of gel sheets, I arrive at 4:54pm to find the door locked. Knocked a few times, and finally a staff member came out. I mentioned it wasn’t 5pm yet and I just needed to buy a few gels, but was simply met with a shrug of the shoulders and told ”well, we’re closed” with no explanation whatsoever.
I get that people want to leave early sometimes, but would it really have been that much effort to sell a couple of items to a customer? If you run a business and want to get out of there dead on 5pm, try changing your closing time to 4:45pm instead.
Do yourself a favor and visit somewhere else, DTC Grip in Emeryville for example, who have a great line and excellent service without the attitude.

We wanted to save some money so we only rented lights. Our wedding was last week, which we did our own lighting specs and Joseph in the rental department was super helpful and really easy to work with. The whole time I was coordinating from NYC for our SF wedding and I was a little weary about how I was going to get it done, but Holzmueller made it easy.
They had everything we needed and would definitely use them again.

I have used Holzmuller twice for events at my home. They have been great: super friendly, professional, helpful. It is so much fun to go to their warehouse. Their prices are also fabulous! I highly recommend them.

I’ve been coming here for about 7 years to rent various theatrical lighting and effects.
There are not many places in the Bay Area to rent these types of things so I would consider them my go to place. I’ve rented f-​100 fog machines, dry ice fog machines, snow machines, blacklight fixtures, follow spots, etc. and I would say that although the equipment that they offer isn’t the newest models, it definitely does the trick. I’ve called in asking for a specific look or effect and the rental associate invited me to come down to the shop to take a look. When I got there they had a mock up of the fixtures and they demoed it for me.
Pros: They have a lot of theatrical effects products for rent. Their prices are reasonable.
Cons: Equipment is old, Not open on weekends.

I haven’t been quite so excited to write a 5-​star review in awhile. Holzmueller was a life saver yesterday and I’m a huge fan. These guys are super helpful and although I haven’t rented any equipment from them yet (this review is just for purchasing a bulb), I will absolutely be back.
I ordered a gobo from Tribeca Lighting out in NYC back in July– buying a full gobo is quite the investment because between the lighting fixture and the actual gobo it runs about 600 bucks. Well because its an investment I expected to be able to use it for my events! It ended up arriving the morning of our event in July, so when we were setting everything up for the night we were pretty rushed trying to get the gobo together and honestly didn’t really know what we were doing. So apparently we lost the bulb that was included in the package.
This was a bummer but I wanted to use the gobo for our next event (they’re just so cool!) which was last night and needed to get this bulb situation resolved. So I called Tribeca, they swore it was packed in the shipment, it still wasn’t there, I got the name of Phoebus Lighting, and while they didn’t have what I was looking for in stock Terry directed me to Holzmueller across the street which was really nice of him.
Chris at Holzmueller was a dream. The bulb was in stock, he helped me pick out a colored gel to add (at Eventbrite we LOVE orange!) and he took the time to show me how to operate it using another fixture in his showroom. I finally felt comfortable using it and learned how to insert the bulb, how to adjust focus, where to put the gobo, etc. Oh and he warned me just how hot the fixture gets, and even with the warning still managed to burn my leg while I was setting it up. Oops.
Anyways, I now know how to operate one of my favorite event-​related elements and am so happy for it!

Holzmueller was great in helping me make a Gobo for a benefit fundraiser I was planning. I had never made one before and they walked me through it and explained everything I would need, making it easy! Nice folks to work with.

I am not a lighting engineer. I am a network engineer. If I could have read all of the info on the bulbs I bought, I wouldn’t have needed help…
Worst custormer service ever. Almost hostile. And I’m out 100 bucks because of their really great return policy.