AC repair in Vienna.
Air conditioner and heat pump repair for Vienna homes, from 1950s retrofits in the town to rebuilds with two systems, with the price set before work starts.
The diagnostic visit is $99, and a run capacitor replaced is $240 to $370 from our published price book.
- Prices in writing, first
- Common parts on the truck
- Dedicated HVAC team
Get your AC repair priced
Vienna air conditioning: added to 1950s houses, doubled up in the new ones.
About two thirds of the homes inside the Town of Vienna went up before 1980, and about two in ten before 1960. Plenty of those older houses were built without central air and had it added later, so the ductwork runs wherever it would fit: across the attic, down a closet, through a crawlspace. A long attic run in July and a return sized for a smaller house are the usual reasons one bedroom never cools, and both are worth checking before anyone blames the condenser.
About a quarter of the town’s homes went up after 2000, and the Town keeps a whole permit track for building on infill lots. Those houses often run two systems, sometimes three, with the upstairs air handler in the attic. When its condensate line clogs, the first sign is often a stain on the ceiling below, and clearing the drain at $175 to $420 is cheap next to the drywall.
Outside the town line it shifts again. Wolf Trap is nearly all single-family houses with a 1980 median, and about two in ten owner homes there heat with electricity, which usually means a heat pump. That outdoor unit works all year, so a summer repair on one includes the parts that only matter in January.
A repair needs no permit on either side of the line. A replacement does, and it comes from Fairfax County even inside the town, because the county serves as the Town’s building official; a system on the newer A2L refrigerants also needs the county’s A2L certification. In the Windover Heights Historic District, an outside change that isn’t an in-kind replacement, like a condenser moving to a new spot, can need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the district’s Board of Review first.
What’s cooling the houses across Vienna.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wolf Trap | 1980 | single-family houses, nearly all | gas, about 7 in 10 | 1980s and 90s houses, most on their second or third system. |
| Vienna | 1972 | single-family houses, about 8 in 10 | gas, about 8 in 10 | Older houses on their third or fourth system, usually a gas furnace with a separate AC. |
Vienna 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 Vienna
Nearly the whole town sits in 22180, which it shares with county streets toward Dunn Loring and Merrifield.
- Median home built1972 Census
- Built before 1980about 7 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 3 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 8 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 8 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 2 in 10 Census
- Gas heat means a furnace inside and a separate air conditioner outside, sharing one blower, so a tired blower shows up in both seasons.
- Older houses often have returns too small for today’s systems, and a starved return is one of the ways an AC freezes up.
The county side, around Wolf Trap
Vienna mail outside the town line: Wolf Trap and the Tysons edge in 22182, the Oakton side of 22181, Dunn Loring. The figures are Wolf Trap’s, the biggest piece.
What AC repair costs in Vienna.
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
- 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 the cooling and heating maintenance visits are part of the membership.
What a failing AC in Vienna usually does.
One bedroom never cools
In an older Vienna house with central air added later, the far bedroom often sits at the end of the longest attic run. Balancing the dampers or adding a ductless head in that room usually does more than a bigger condenser would.
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.
How to pick the best AC repair company in Vienna.
Questions worth asking anybody who comes out, us included.
Do they check the return before selling refrigerant?
Central air added to an older Vienna house often breathes through one small return. When the coil ices up, a tech who measures the airflow first can save you a refrigerant charge the system never needed.
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.
What our customers say.
I called as a new client for a repair and they answered swiftly and fixed my AC. My technician Efrain did a great job explaining the problem and giving me solutions.
5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
AC repair questions from Vienna.
Do I need a permit to fix my AC in the Town of Vienna?
Not for a repair. Replacing the system is permit work, and Fairfax County issues it inside the town as well as outside, since the county serves as the Town’s building official. The Town’s own review comes in for the projects on its list, like an addition, or an outside change in Windover Heights.
My Vienna house has three thermostats. Does each system need its own check?
Yes. Each one is its own equipment with its own filter, drain line and capacitor. Run every system for a few minutes in May, including the one for the basement or the guest room nobody uses, because a failure there can go unnoticed for weeks. A run capacitor, the most common summer part, is $240 to $370.
Is a heat pump in Wolf Trap repaired any differently from an AC?
The outdoor unit is the same kind of machine, but a heat pump also runs backwards for winter, so the valve that switches it and the board that runs its defrost get tested too. Around Wolf Trap about two in ten homes heat with electricity, so a summer call there often covers both.
How much does AC repair cost in Vienna?
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.
AC repair in the towns next door.
- AC repair in Oakton
- AC repair in McLean
- AC repair in Fairfax
- AC repair in Reston
- AC repair in Falls Church
More from SwiftPro in Vienna
Tell us what your AC is doing.
Call, or book online and pick a window. 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 is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Vienna and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Book online, read our reviews, or see every town we serve.