A stain on the neighbor’s ceiling
In a City condo, a water heater leak usually shows up on the neighbor’s ceiling before you see it. The drain pan under the tank and the line out of it are what catch it.
Alexandria, Virginia
Water heater repair and replacement in Alexandria.
A new water heater installed with the permit runs $2,757 to $5,493 for an electric tank, $3,379 to $5,485 for gas or propane and $8,886 to $10,486 for tankless.
$46/mo60mo @ 0% APR
Price range
$2,757-$5,493
8yrs @ 7.99%
$39/mo
15yrs @ 9.99%
$30/mo
Monthly figures on the starting price, the whole price financed, on approved credit. The lender sets the final terms. How financing works
Get your price in writing
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Rather talk now? (703) 997-9757
Water heaters in the City of Alexandria and the Fairfax County side, repaired or replaced with the permit already in the price. The water heater estimator gives your exact number.
- Permit and expansion tank included
- Tank or tankless
- Dedicated plumbing team
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews
Two of our plumbers wheeling a new water heater up a Northern Virginia walkway, the van at the curb.
Licensed and insuredVirginia Class A contractor #2705192276
24/7 emergency serviceOften same-day, and we will tell you honestly when we can get there.
Our own plumbers, our own trucksNobody here is a subcontractor with a magnet on the door
The price is settled before the workYou see the number in writing before anything is taken apart
What it costs
What a new water heater costs in Alexandria.
Installed, from our water heater estimator, which is the price book. Everything is in the number: the permit and the inspection, the expansion tank, the drain pan, hauling the old one away, and the labor.
Electric tank, installed
$2,757 to $5,493
or $46/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Gas or propane tank, installed
$3,379 to $5,485
or $56/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Power vent tank, installed
$5,957 to $7,494
or $99/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Tankless, installed
$8,886 to $10,486
or $148/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Monthly figures: 60mo @ 0% APR on each starting price, the whole price financed, on approved credit. Longer plans lower the payment and cost more in total. The lender sets the final terms. How financing works
How the house vents picks the row; where you land inside it is the tank size and the warranty. A hybrid heat pump water heater is quoted at the visit, never from a page.
Keeping the one you have? A yearly water heater flush slows the sediment down: $99 right now, normally $199. A tankless descale is $300, regularly $350. Or get the flush every year with Comfort+ membership, $199 a year, along with a dryer vent cleaning, a sewer camera inspection and heating and cooling maintenance visits.
What’s different in Alexandria
Two water companies and two permit rules in one Alexandria.
The city line splits the water. The City of Alexandria is on Virginia American Water, which buys from Fairfax Water and reported 4.6 to 11.2 grains per gallon in 2025; the Fairfax County side takes Fairfax Water directly, 3 to 10.8. Hard enough, on either side, to leave sediment in a tank year after year. Most of the Alexandria addresses we work at are on the Fairfax County side, not in the City.
It splits the paperwork too. A gas water heater on the county side needs a Fairfax County permit plus a chimney vent certification, swapped like for like or not. Inside the City the state rule applies: gas takes a permit, a like-for-like electric tank doesn’t. And in the older City houses, a furnace that’s gone high-efficiency and vents out the wall can strand the water heater on a chimney that’s now too big for it.
On the county side, Franconia and Woodlawn lean electric, so their water heaters usually do too, which makes a replacement there the simpler kind: no flue, no gas line. Rose Hill and Fort Hunt lean gas, back to the chimney question; Fort Hunt is nearly all single-family houses from the early 1960s, and the tank there usually stands in the basement next to the furnace. Belle Haven is the oldest corner, its median house built in 1957. Huntington is mostly condo buildings, closer to the City than to its neighbors, and like Hybla Valley it’s more than half rented, so the tank there is often a landlord’s, and so is the call on replacing it.
City condos get a break on the paperwork. The City’s 2025 guidance for condo owners lists a water heater replaced with similar equipment among the work inside a unit that needs no City building permit, and more than half the City’s homes are in condo and apartment buildings. What the guidance doesn’t cover is the building’s own say over who works in the closet and when, which is why we ask for the building’s name up front.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
What’s heating the water across Alexandria.
Census figures for each place, and the water heater that usually goes with its houses. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | The water heater you usually find |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Alexandria | 1970 | condo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Condo closets: gas or electric tanks, over a pan. |
| Rose Hill | 1969 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Gas tanks, often sharing a chimney with the furnace. |
| Franconia | 1986 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly electric tanks, no flue. |
| Fort Hunt | 1963 | single-family houses, nearly all | gas, about 8 in 10 | Gas tanks, often sharing a chimney with the furnace. |
| Kingstowne | 1994 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Tanks in closets and upstairs rooms: the pan matters. |
| Woodlawn | 1976 | townhouses, about 4 in 10 | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly electric tanks, no flue. |
| Lincolnia | 1982 | single-family houses, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Gas tanks on their second or third replacement. |
| Mount Vernon | 1967 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Gas tanks, often sharing a chimney with the furnace. |
By the numbers
Alexandria houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
The City of Alexandria
- Median home built1970 Census
- Built before 1980about 6 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 2 in 10 Census
- Most homes arecondo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 6 in 10 Census
- Where the heat is electric the water heater usually is too, and that’s the simpler swap: no flue and no gas line to deal with.
- In older houses the gas water heater often shares a chimney with the furnace, and a new high-efficiency furnace can leave it alone on a flue that’s too big.
The Fairfax County side
- Built before 1980about 5 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 1 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 4 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 3 in 10 Census
- Most houses here heat with gas, so most water heaters are gas tanks, and replacing one takes a permit even like for like.
What you’d notice
What a failing water heater in Alexandria usually does.
The pilot won’t stay lit
On a gas tank that’s usually the thermocouple or the gas valve, both repairs. A burner that lights but smells of exhaust is different: shut it off and call.
Warm, never hot, on an electric tank
An electric tank has two elements. When one fails the water still warms, just never all the way; it’s a common, fixable part.
If the basement took water
After a storm in Alexandria, check the water heater.
A water heater usually sits on the lowest floor of the house, so it’s one of the first things standing water reaches. Three checks, then call us.
- 1
Water reached the burner or the gas controls
Leave it off and don’t relight it. The warning label on a gas water heater says not to use it if any part has been under water, and to have a service technician replace the gas control.
- 2
An electric tank sat in water
Shut its breaker off at the panel, but only from somewhere dry. The elements and the thermostats get checked before it heats again.
- 3
Water around it after the rain stopped
Mop it up and look again in an hour. Water that comes back with no rain is the tank or a valve, not the storm.
Call us after a storm and we’ll check it: the gas control or the elements, the burner, the venting and the drain pan. If it has to be replaced, you get the price in writing before anything comes out.
Permits and pressure
Who signs off on a new water heater in Alexandria.
Fairfax County
Virginia lets emergency replacement work start first, with the permit application in by the end of the next working day. Source.
Fairfax Water promises 20 psi at the main and no uniform pressure, and the pressure reducing valve on your side of the meter is yours to buy and keep up. Over 80 psi, the Virginia Residential Code calls for one, and an expansion tank with it. Source.
Our Virginia Class A contractor license, 2705192276, is on the side of the van.
Choosing who installs it
How to pick the best water heater installer in Alexandria.
Questions worth asking anybody who quotes you, us included.
Do they check the flue when the furnace was replaced?
In an older Alexandria house the water heater may be venting up a chimney that used to carry the furnace too. A new tank on that flue needs a look at the chimney, not just a connection.
Is the permit in the price?
A gas water heater always needs a permit, an electric one often does, and skipping it tends to surface when the house sells. Ask whether the quote includes it and the inspection.
Is there an expansion tank in the quote?
Most houses here have a check valve or a pressure reducer on the incoming line, so the heated water has nowhere to go. An expansion tank gives it somewhere, and leaving it out is how quotes come in low.
Will they tell you when a repair will do?
A thermocouple, an element or a valve is a repair, not a new heater. A good plumber says so, and saves the replacement talk for a leaking tank.
Two of our crew going over a work order before the day's calls.
From our Google reviews
What our customers say.
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Hard to find service like this in Alexandria.
…we had swift and professional responses for multiple plumbing and HVAC needs in our Rosemont Alexandria condo
This Company installed a tankless water system!!! They were great!!! Very Professional & Efficient & they Cleaned up & took out the old water tank! I would highly recommend them!!
Where we work
Water heaters in every Northern Virginia town we serve
Next door to Alexandria: Arlington, Springfield, Falls Church, Annandale and Fort Belvoir.
Fairfax County
Arlington County
Loudoun County
Prince William County
Fauquier County
Stafford County
Questions
Water heater questions from Alexandria.
Does my Alexandria water heater swap need a permit?
Depends which side of the city line you’re on. On the Fairfax County side, a gas water heater always does, plus a chimney vent certification. In the City, gas does and a like-for-like electric tank doesn’t. Ours include the permit either way.
Can you replace the water heater in a City condo?
Yes. Most City condo heaters are electric tanks in a closet built around them, so the new one has to fit the same footprint and get through the same door. The pan under it, and the line out of the pan, are what protect the unit below, and they’re part of the job.
Is Alexandria’s water hard enough to matter for a water heater?
It’s moderately hard to hard on both sides of the line: 4.6 to 11.2 grains per gallon in the City in 2025 and 3 to 10.8 on the county side. Either one lays down sediment on the bottom of a tank, and a yearly flush is how you stay ahead of it.
How much is a new water heater in Alexandria?
Installed, with the permit, the expansion tank, the pan and the haul-away: an electric tank $2,757 to $5,493, a gas or propane tank on the flue you have $3,379 to $5,485, a power vent tank $5,957 to $7,494, and a tankless unit $8,886 to $10,486. The estimator gives your exact number in about a minute.
Ready when you are
Tell us how old yours is.
Call, or send the form at the top. The age on the label and what it’s doing tell us most of what we need, and you get the price before anything comes out.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
4230 Lafayette Center Dr N, Chantilly, VA 20151
44679 Endicott Dr, Suite 211, Ashburn, VA 20147
Virginia Class A contractor license #2705192276
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Alexandria and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews on Google, Angi, Yelp, the BBB and Facebook. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
From SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in Chantilly. Housing figures are the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024, for each place named; permit, water and sewer facts link to each office’s own page and were checked in September and October 2026.