Water heater repair and replacement in Dunn Loring.
A new gas water heater in Dunn Loring runs $3,379 to $5,485 installed, with the Fairfax County permit. Most 22027 houses heat with gas.
- Permit and expansion tank included
- Tank or tankless
- Dedicated plumbing team
Get your water heater priced
Gas tanks, Potomac grit and storm outages: Dunn Loring water heaters.
About seven owner homes in ten in Dunn Loring’s 22027 heat with natural gas, and in a detached house built around 1991, the typical one here, the water heater is usually a gas tank in the basement a few feet from the furnace. Most tanks give out somewhere past ten years, so a house that age is likely on its second or third. The couple of owners in a hundred on propane get the same row as gas.
The water it heats is hard. All of 22027 sits in Fairfax Water’s Washington Aqueduct zone, Potomac water the Aqueduct’s 2025 report puts at 5.6 to 10.9 grains per gallon, and the college-named streets off Cottage Street buy Town of Vienna water at 5 to 10. That calcium settles on the bottom of the tank. A yearly flush, $99 right now, slows that down; it can’t undo fifteen years of it.
Most of the storm reports NOAA files under Dunn Loring are wind. Tropical Storm Irene knocked out about 81,000 Fairfax County customers in 2011, with Merrifield, just across I-66, among the hardest-hit spots, and the June 2012 derecho dropped big limbs across Prosperity Avenue here. A standard gas tank on a chimney usually keeps making hot water through an outage. A power vent tank, $5,957 to $7,494 installed, and a tankless unit both need electricity to run.
Look at the pipes on top of the old tank too. Some 1980s and 90s houses here were plumbed in gray polybutylene, and where it comes up to the heater, the written price says what it takes to change those connections. The label gives the year the tank was made; on gas in this water, past twelve is where we’d start pricing the replacement.
Dunn Loring houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
Dunn Loring
ZIP 22027 as a whole: every Dunn Loring address. The Dunn Loring Census place is bigger: about three in four of its homes have Vienna mail.
- Median home built1991 Census
- Built before 1980about 3 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 2 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 9 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 7 in 10 Census
- Rentedhardly any Census
- Most houses here heat with gas, so most water heaters are gas tanks, and replacing one takes a permit even like for like.
What a new water heater costs in Dunn Loring.
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
- Gas or propane tank, installed$3,379 to $5,485
- Power vent tank, installed$5,957 to $7,494
- Tankless, installed$8,886 to $10,486
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 a failing water heater in Dunn Loring usually does.
The hot water quit during a hard freeze
In the late January 2026 cold, wind chills ran 0 to 10 below across the Piedmont, and the water reaching tanks was about as cold as it gets. A tank with a thick sediment layer, or a gas burner that’s worn, is the first to come up short. It can be a repair; a leak from the tank itself never is.
The pilot won’t stay lit
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.
Water on the floor around it
A drip from a valve can be fixed. Water from the tank itself can’t; once the lining goes, the only fix is a new heater, and sooner beats later.
After a storm in Dunn Loring, check the water heater.
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.
Water reached the burner or the gas controls
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.
An electric tank sat in water
Shut its breaker off at the panel, but only from somewhere dry. The elements and the thermostats get checked before it heats again.
Water around it after the rain stopped
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.
Who signs off on a new water heater in Dunn Loring.
Fairfax County
Fairfax County requires a permit to replace any gas appliance, even like for like: a gas water heater, furnace or boiler. Replacing a fuel-burning appliance also needs a chimney vent certification. Source.
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.
How to pick the best water heater installer in Dunn Loring.
Questions worth asking anybody who quotes you, us included.
Did they ask what you need when the power’s out?
A standard gas tank on a chimney keeps working when the lights go out; a power vent tank or a tankless unit doesn’t. Ask the installer which kind the quote is for and what it does in an outage.
Is the permit in the price?
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.
Is there an expansion tank in the quote?
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.
Will they tell you when a repair will do?
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.
What our customers say.
Had the water heater replaced and a quote for my HVAC. Both technicians were friendly and helpful. Prices were decent. Would use again.
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Water heater questions from Dunn Loring.
Who issues the water heater permit for a Dunn Loring house?
Fairfax County, whatever the envelope says. Dunn Loring has no town government, and Vienna mail doesn’t move a house into the Town of Vienna. The county wants a permit even for a like-for-like gas tank, and our installed prices have it in the number.
Tank or tankless for a 1990s Dunn Loring house?
A tank is the simpler swap, $2,757 to $7,494 installed, and a standard gas one rides out an outage. A tankless, $8,886 to $10,486 installed, never runs out mid-shower, but it needs power, a big enough gas line and descaling on this water, $300 right now.
How much is a new water heater in Dunn Loring?
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.
Water heaters in the towns next door.
- Water heaters in Vienna
- Water heaters in Falls Church
- Water heaters in McLean
- Water heaters in Annandale
- Water heaters in Oakton
More from SwiftPro in Dunn Loring
Tell us how old yours is.
Call, or book online and pick a window. 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 is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Dunn Loring 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.