The heat pump is icing up in summer
Ice on the outdoor lines in July means low refrigerant or starved airflow. Shut it off to thaw and call; running it iced can take out the compressor.
Herndon, Virginia
AC repair in Herndon.
The diagnostic visit is $99, and a run capacitor replaced is $240 to $370 from our published price book.
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Heat pump and AC repair across Herndon, in the Town and out in Floris, Franklin Farm and McNair, with the price from our book before a tool comes out.
- Prices in writing, first
- Common parts on the truck
- Dedicated HVAC team
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews
One of our HVAC technicians beside an outdoor unit at a Northern Virginia home, the vans 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 HVAC installersA dedicated heating and cooling team, separate from our plumbers
Price in writing firstYou see every option priced before anything is ordered
What it costs
What AC repair costs in Herndon.
The same price book as our AC repair page. The diagnostic visit is $99, and the common parts ride on the truck, so most of these get fixed on the first visit.
Run capacitor replaced
$240 to $370
Contactor replaced
$290 to $425
Condensate drain cleared
$175 to $420
Refrigerant topped up
$190 to $740
Blower wheel pulled and cleaned
$300 to $440
Refrigerant leak found and repaired
$1,850 to $2,700
or $31/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Repair diagnostic visit
$99
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
Often same-day, and we will tell you honestly when we can get there.
With Comfort+ membership, $20 a month or $199 a year, the diagnostic visit is included, any service is 15% off, and the cooling and heating maintenance visits are part of the membership.
What’s different in Herndon
Inside the town line, the box out back is usually a heat pump.
About six in ten owners inside the Town of Herndon heat with electricity, and in a house like that the unit outside is a heat pump, not a plain air conditioner. It’s one machine doing July and January, so our techs check the reversing valve and the defrost controls in August along with the capacitor and the coil.
More than half the town’s homes went up in the 1970s and 80s, and they come in a mix: about a quarter townhouses, about a quarter condo and apartment buildings. In the townhouse rows the outdoor units sit shoulder to shoulder out back, where a fence or a tight corner can starve a condenser of the air it needs. In the condo buildings the cooling is often a small split system or an air handler in a hall closet.
Cross the town line and the equipment changes with the neighborhood. Floris leans gas, so most houses there run a furnace inside and a separate air conditioner outside on one blower. Dranesville leans electric, heat pumps again, and Franklin Farm sits near half and half. McNair, mostly built since 2000 along Sunrise Valley Drive, is condo and apartment buildings whose owners mostly heat with gas, and a system installed before 2010 there likely runs R-22.
A repair takes no permit on either side. A replacement does, and the office follows the town line: inside it, the Town of Herndon’s Building Inspections office, which puts its mechanical permit review at about 14 business days; outside it, Fairfax County, which also asks for an A2L certification with any new heat pump or AC on the newer refrigerants.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
What’s cooling the houses across Herndon.
Census figures for each place, and what that usually means for the air conditioning. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | What the cooling usually is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Farm | 1985 | single-family houses, about 9 in 10 | electricity, about 5 in 10 | Mostly electric heat: heat pumps that cool in summer and heat in winter. |
| Herndon | 1981 | single-family houses, about 4 in 10 | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly electric heat: heat pumps that cool in summer and heat in winter. |
| Dranesville | 1984 | single-family houses, nearly all | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly electric heat: heat pumps that cool in summer and heat in winter. |
| McNair | 2003 | condo and apartment buildings, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Condo and apartment buildings: small splits and fan coils, roof or balcony condensers. |
| Floris | 1990 | single-family houses, about 8 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | 1980s and 90s houses, most on their second or third system. |
| Hutchison | 1979 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | electricity, about 7 in 10 | Mostly electric heat: heat pumps that cool in summer and heat in winter. |
| Sully Square | 2015 | condo and apartment buildings, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Condo and apartment buildings: small splits and fan coils, roof or balcony condensers. |
By the numbers
Herndon houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
The Town of Herndon
Inside the town limits. Floris, Franklin Farm, McNair and Dranesville, on the Fairfax County side, are counted by the Census as places of their own.
- Median home built1981 Census
- Built before 1980about 4 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 2 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 4 in 10 Census
- Heated withelectricity, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 4 in 10 Census
- Electric heat here usually means a heat pump, so the outdoor unit works all year and an AC problem is often a heating problem waiting for January.
What you’d notice
What a failing AC in Herndon usually does.
The air coming out is warm
Usually the outdoor unit has stopped running. A hum with no fan turning is almost always the run capacitor; silence while the thermostat calls is usually the contactor.
It runs all day and never cools
That’s an airflow problem far more often than a refrigerant problem: a clogged filter, a matted coil, or a blower wheel packed with dust.
Choosing who fixes it
How to pick the best AC repair company in Herndon.
Questions worth asking anybody who comes out, us included.
Do they treat a heat pump call as a two-season repair?
In a Herndon house heated by electricity, the outdoor unit is half the heating system too. A good tech runs it in heat mode before leaving, so fixing July doesn’t hand you a January surprise.
Do they publish prices?
A company that prints what a capacitor or a contactor costs has already told you the number. One that won’t say until the tech is in your driveway hasn’t.
Do they measure before they sell refrigerant?
A healthy system drops the air somewhere around 16 to 22 degrees across the indoor coil. Low refrigerant means a leak, and topping it up every summer is the expensive way to find that out.
Will they tell you when it’s the end of the road?
Some repairs aren’t worth doing on a 20-year-old system. The good answer shows you the repair price and the replacement price side by side and lets you pick.
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.
SwiftPro was able to schedule a repair visit that day when our a/c was blowing warm air. They sent out a qualified technician who communicated effectively and resolved our problem quickly. He also made a few recommendations to keep our unit in working order. Thanks Jaime for the great job.
Where we work
AC repair in every Northern Virginia town we serve
Next door to Herndon: Reston, Sterling, Great Falls, Oakton and Chantilly.
Fairfax County
Arlington County
Loudoun County
Prince William County
Fauquier County
Stafford County
Questions
AC repair questions from Herndon.
Is a heat pump repair in Herndon priced differently from an AC repair?
No, it’s the same book, and the common parts cost the same on either machine. A heat pump carries one a straight AC doesn’t, the defrost board, and replacing it runs $450 to $1,150.
Can I move my condenser if I’m in Herndon’s historic district?
Moving it is an exterior change, and inside the Town’s historic district most exterior changes need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic District Review Board before work starts. A repair changes nothing outside and needs none of that. If you think you’re in the district, ask the Town before anyone moves the unit.
Do you fix the AC in McNair condos?
Yes, the unit’s own equipment: the air handler or fan coil inside, and the outdoor section when your condo documents say it’s yours. Where the condensers sit on the roof, the association usually holds the key, so give us the building name when you book and access gets arranged before the visit.
How much does AC repair cost in Herndon?
The diagnostic visit is $99. The common repairs: a run capacitor $240 to $370, a contactor $290 to $425, a condensate drain cleared $175 to $420, refrigerant topped up $190 to $740. A refrigerant leak repair runs $1,850 to $2,700.
Should I repair it or replace it?
Fix the cheap parts on almost anything. Think twice about a big repair on a system over 15 years old, and about any leak on an R-22 system. The HVAC estimator prices a new system in about a minute, so you can put the two numbers side by side.
Ready when you are
Tell us what your AC is doing.
Call, or send the form at the top. The tech prices the repair from the book before starting, and if it’s the end of the road you’ll hear that first.
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 Herndon 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.