Open 24/7 for emergencies
Burke tank flushes and tankless descales, for electric tanks in Burke Centre and gas tanks near Lake Braddock. A tank flush is $99 right now.
Get your price in writing
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Rather talk now? (703) 997-9757
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews
Two of our technicians in a customer’s basement, next to the furnace and a tank water heater.
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
Same prices as our water heater flush page, anywhere in Northern Virginia, and you pay after the visit.
Tank water heater flush, with the plumbing check
$99, normally $199
Tankless descale, with the plumbing check
$300, regularly $350
Comfort+ membership, a water heater flush with a sewer camera inspection every year included
$199 a year
Both visits include a whole-home plumbing check: supply lines, shutoffs, a pressure reading, drains, toilets and traps.
One per household, owner-occupied homes, limited time. A leaking tank, or one that’s 15 years old, needs repair or replacement, not a flush.
More for the money: Comfort+ membership, $199 a year, includes the flush and its plumbing check every year, plus a sewer camera inspection, a dryer vent cleaning and heating and cooling maintenance visits.
What’s different in Burke
Burke’s water comes from Fairfax Water, which measured hardness between 3 to 10.8 grains per gallon across its plants in 2025, moderately hard to hard. Every gallon a water heater warms leaves a little of those minerals behind, and it settles wherever the heat is.
Where it settles depends on the tank. In Burke Centre, where about 7 in 10 homes heat with electricity, most water heaters are electric too, and scale builds up around the lower element until that element runs hot and quits. Outside Burke Centre, where gas heat leads, the tank is usually gas, and the sediment sits on the bottom right over the burner, which is the popping you hear when it fires.
In a Burke Centre townhouse the tank may sit in a hall closet with carpet a few feet away and no floor drain. We drain it to the laundry standpipe or carry it out by the bucket, and look at the drain pan while the tank is empty, because that pan is all that protects the ceiling below.
Pressure is part of the visit. Fairfax Water dates the county’s pressure reducing valve requirement to December 4, 1972, and Burke Centre’s covenants were written in 1976, so the houses they cover were built under it. A house with one has a valve on the incoming line that may be as old as the house, and the plumbing check’s pressure reading shows whether it’s still holding.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
Census figures for each place, and what we’d look at first on a flush there. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | What we’d look at first |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burke | 1979 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Older houses on their second or third heater: we read the label first. |
| Burke Centre | 1982 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | electricity, about 7 in 10 | Townhouses: utility rooms and closets, so we check the pan and the valves. |
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
When it’s due
When an electric tank’s lower element is buried in scale, the bottom of the tank heats slowly and the hot water runs out early. A flush clears the scale off the element; if the element has already failed, that’s a repair, and we’ll tell you.
That’s water boiling under a layer of sediment on the bottom of the tank. A flush clears it out.
Which is most houses. The drain valve at the bottom of the tank has usually never been opened.
Choosing who does it
Questions worth asking anybody you call, us included.
A flush on an electric water heater should end with both elements checked. In Burke Centre, where most tanks are electric, a dead lower element is a common reason a freshly flushed tank still runs short.
The anode is the part that corrodes so the tank doesn’t, and the relief valve is the tank’s safety valve. A flush that skips both is just draining water.
A real descale isolates the heater at its service valves and pumps solution through the heat exchanger, then rinses it and cleans the inlet screen.
Two of our crew going over a work order before the day's calls.
From our Google reviews
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Jim was very professional, knowledgeable and polite plumber. He installed a water heater for us. After the installation he educated us on the maintenance and the new set up. I strongly recommend Jim/SwiftPro. Plus SwiftPro price was very reasonable/20% below other estimates.
Where we work
Next door to Burke: Fairfax Station, Springfield, Annandale, Fairfax and Clifton.
Questions
Every year for a tank, given Fairfax Water’s hardness. A tankless heater needs its own descale on a routine too ($300 right now, regularly $350), and sooner if it starts showing scale codes.
A little. With the burner off and the tank drained, it’s a good time to look at the flue connection the two may share and at the burner area for rust and soot. If either needs work you hear about it, with a price, before anything is touched.
$99 right now for a tank, normally $199, with a whole-home plumbing check. A tankless descale is $300 right now, regularly $350. Comfort+ membership, $199 a year, includes the flush every year.
Ready when you are
Call, or send the form at the top. Tell us tank or tankless, and the tech brings the right gear.
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 Burke 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.