Open 24/7 for emergencies
The diagnostic visit is $99, and a flame sensor cleaned is $95 to $180 from our published price book.
Get your price in writing
Send this and the office calls or texts you back to set a time.
We’ll call or text this number about your request. By sending it you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Rather talk now? (703) 997-9757
Furnace and heat pump repair in Sterling, from gas furnaces in Cascades and Lowes Island to Countryside’s heat pumps, priced from our book first.
5.0 stars across 1,132 reviews
Two of our technicians in a Northern Virginia utility room, between the furnace and the 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 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
The same price book as the rest of our site. The diagnostic visit is $99, and the tech prices the repair before starting it.
Flame sensor cleaned
$95 to $180
Igniter or flame sensor replaced
$240 to $410
Blower wheel pulled and cleaned
$300 to $440
Thermostat replaced
$300 to $640
Control board
$550 to $1,180
Blower motor
$670 to $2,400
Repair diagnostic visit
$99
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 a heating maintenance visit comes every fall.
Recent work
What our technicians found and fixed on visits in Sterling, from their notes on each job.
October 2026
No heat: the gas furnace stopped on a pressure switch error. The inducer motor had power but wasn’t spinning; once it was freed and reinstalled, the furnace ran through its full sequence.
February 2026
Heat pump: a burned wire to the outdoor fan motor and melted terminals on the capacitor. The capacitor was replaced and the wiring repaired, and the system was heating again.
February 2026
A 1992 furnace blowing air but not lighting. The gas valve failed on repeated starts and parts for a furnace that age can’t be found, so it was shut off and a replacement priced.
What’s different in Sterling
Winter out here bites harder than inside the Beltway. NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for Dulles Airport, next to Sterling, count about 102 nights a year at or below freezing, where Reagan National in Arlington averages about 60, and about five nights a year at 10 degrees or colder, against less than one at National. Over a winter, Dulles logs about a fifth more heating degree days.
That cold lands hardest on the four in ten Sterling owners who heat with electricity: close to eight in ten in Countryside, just over half around Sterling Park. Electric heat here is usually a heat pump, and a heat pump puts out less heat the colder it gets outside, so on a 10-degree night it hands more of the job to the resistance strips in the air handler.
Cascades, Lowes Island, Oak Grove and Arcola lean hard the other way, seven to nine in ten owners on gas, and the furnace’s age follows the street. A Cascades or Lowes Island house from the 1990s is usually on its second furnace by now. Oak Grove’s 2005 median puts plenty of original furnaces near twenty, old enough for an inducer motor or a circuit board to be the call. Arcola’s, from a 2017 median, are often under ten.
A few Sterling homes heat with propane, the most around Dulles Town Center, where about one owner home in fifteen does, and we work on propane furnaces as well as gas. Heating oil barely registers here, about two homes in a thousand, and we don’t work on oil burners.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
Census figures for each place, and what that usually means for the heat. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | What the heat usually is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling | 1979 | single-family houses, about 5 in 10 | electricity, about 5 in 10 | Mostly electric heat, usually heat pumps with backup strips. |
| Lowes Island | 1996 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Townhouse furnaces in closets and attics. |
| Cascades | 1996 | townhouses, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 8 in 10 | 1980s and 90s houses, most on their second furnace. |
| Sugarland Run | 1983 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 5 in 10 | 1980s and 90s houses, most on their second furnace. |
| Dulles Town Center | 1998 | condo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 9 in 10 | Condo and apartment buildings: gas or electric, in compact closet units. |
| Arcola | 2017 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 8 in 10 | Townhouse furnaces in closets and attics. |
| Oak Grove | 2005 | townhouses, about 8 in 10 | gas, about 9 in 10 | Townhouse furnaces in closets and attics. |
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
On the few nights a winter that Dulles drops to 10 degrees or lower, a heat pump leans on its strips and the meter spins faster. If the bill stays high after the weather softens, the strips have been covering for a heat pump that quit pulling its weight.
A few minutes of cool air in winter is a defrost cycle, and that’s normal. Cool air all the time, or emergency heat running all day, is a call.
The burners fire and go out a few seconds later, over and over. That’s usually a dirty flame sensor, and cleaning it takes about ten minutes.
Safety and paperwork
Loudoun County Fire and Rescue says to have heating equipment and chimneys cleaned and inspected every year by a qualified professional, and to keep anything that can burn at least three feet from all heating equipment. Source.
In its fall clock-change reminder, Loudoun County’s fire and rescue system tells residents to check their carbon monoxide alarms, and recommends one outside each sleeping area and on each level of the home, tested monthly. Source.
Our Virginia Class A contractor license, 2705192276, is on the side of the van.
Choosing who fixes it
Questions worth asking anybody who comes out, us included.
In Sterling that answer splits the diagnosis. A heat pump losing ground at 15 degrees with its strips running is doing what it was built to do; the same complaint at 45 points to a fault. A tech who asks first saves you a part you didn’t need.
Flame sensors, igniters and control boards all have a going rate. A tech who can’t tell you the number before starting is asking you to find out afterwards.
Getting the burners lit is half a heating call. Ask whether they check the flue and test for carbon monoxide while the panel’s open.
A big repair on a furnace past 15 or 20 years deserves a replacement price next to it. A good tech puts both numbers in front of you and lets you choose.
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.
We had a mini split ac/heat unit installed. They were here when they said they would be, were very professional, and did a very nice job.
Where we work
Next door to Sterling: Ashburn, Herndon, Reston, Great Falls and Chantilly.
Questions
Yes, from Loudoun County, even like for like; Sterling has no permit office of its own. Since October 2025 the county has skipped plan review for a replacement that keeps the old furnace’s BTUs and location, which covers most straight swaps. A repair inside the cabinet needs none.
There’s no cutoff, but every heat pump has a point below which the strips have to help, and on many older units it sits somewhere in the 30s, which Sterling nights cross all winter. A coil that stays iced for hours, or strips running nonstop in mild weather, is a call; the diagnostic visit is $99.
The diagnostic visit is $99. A flame sensor cleaned is $95 to $180; an igniter or flame sensor replaced, $240 to $410; a control board, $550 to $1,180; a blower motor, $670 to $2,400.
Fix the small parts on almost anything. Before a big repair on an old furnace, look at the replacement number: a furnace alone, keeping the air conditioner you have, runs $4,285 to $14,040 installed, and the HVAC estimator gives your number in about a minute. From about $71 a month at 0% APR for 60 months, the whole price financed, on approved credit.
Ready when you are
Call, or send the form at the top. The tech prices the repair from the book before starting, and if the furnace is at the end of its life 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 Sterling 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.