It’s the tank the builder put in
A lot of South Riding houses still have the water heater that came with the house around 2006. The date is on the label; if it starts with 200, get the replacement price now, before the tank picks the day.
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.
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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Water heaters in Chantilly, 20151 and 20152, from our shop on Lafayette Center Drive, with the permit and expansion tank in the price. The water heater estimator gives your exact number.
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
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 Chantilly
Water heaters are a bigger share of our Chantilly work than in most towns. South Riding, in 20152, went up around 2006, so a lot of the tanks there are the originals, past the years most tanks last. 20151 is older, and most houses there are on their second or third heater.
The county line changes the permit, not the job. In 20151 Fairfax County wants a permit and a chimney vent certification for any gas water heater swap. In 20152 it’s Loudoun County, which since October 2025 skips the plan review when the new heater keeps the old one’s BTUs and spot.
Two water companies, one kind of water. 20151 is on Fairfax Water. Across the line in 20152, Loudoun Water’s own report skips hardness entirely, and its website steers you to the Corbalis plant’s lab sheets instead, which read 4.1 to 10.8 grains per gallon in 2025. That’s hard enough on both sides of the county line to lay a crust of sediment on the bottom of a tank.
Loudoun Water’s own FAQ names a water heater part most people have never heard of: the dip tube, the plastic pipe that carries cold water to the bottom of the tank. When it breaks down, white plastic bits turn up in the faucet screens and the hot water runs short. On a South Riding tank from the mid-2000s, that’s a repair worth pricing against a new heater before deciding.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Riding | 2006 | single-family houses, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 8 in 10 | Original 2000s tanks, many past their years. |
| Chantilly | 1987 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 5 in 10 | Gas tanks on their second or third replacement. |
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
What you’d notice
A lot of South Riding houses still have the water heater that came with the house around 2006. The date is on the label; if it starts with 200, get the replacement price now, before the tank picks the day.
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.
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
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.
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.
Shut its breaker off at the panel, but only from somewhere dry. The elements and the thermostats get checked before it heats again.
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
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.
Loudoun Water’s rules put the pressure regulator entirely on the customer. Source.
Our Virginia Class A contractor license, 2705192276, is on the side of the van.
Choosing who installs it
Questions worth asking anybody who quotes you, us included.
Parts of Chantilly are on Columbia Gas instead of Washington Gas. It doesn’t change the install, but if a rebate is part of the plan, it has to be your gas company’s.
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.
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.
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
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Arrived within an hour on a Sunday morning and provided great service.
Called SwiftPro around 5 am and their electronic system scheduled an appointment for us same day.
James is a wealth of knowledge who provided a competitive estimate to replace our hot water heater. He is professional and courteous. Thank you for a great first call.
Where we work
Next door to Chantilly: Centreville, Catharpin, Herndon, Aldie and Oakton.
Questions
If it’s the thermocouple or an element and the tank itself is dry, a repair can make sense. If the tank is leaking, no: at twenty years it’s well past what most tanks give, and a replacement costs $2,757 to $7,494 installed, with the permit and the expansion tank in that number.
For most South Riding townhouses a tank is the cheaper answer, $2,757 to $7,494 installed against $8,886 to $10,486 for tankless. Tankless earns its price when the closet space matters or the house runs out of hot water every morning, and only if the gas line is big enough and there’s a wall to vent through. We check both before you choose.
Yes: repairs, descaling and new installs. In Chantilly’s water the heat exchanger scales up, so a tankless wants its inlet screen cleaned and a descale on a schedule, $300 right now, regularly $350. A new one runs $8,886 to $10,486 installed.
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
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 Chantilly 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.