Open 24/7 for emergencies
AC replacement in The Plains runs $5,942 to $14,450 installed. In town, where the new condenser sits is a historic district question.
Price range
$5,942-$14,450
8yrs @ 7.99%
$84/mo
15yrs @ 9.99%
$64/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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5.0 stars across 1,131 reviews
One of our HVAC technicians moving a new condenser up a driveway, the van behind him.
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 our estimator runs on, for a central air conditioner on its own, keeping the furnace you have. A single-stage unit on a small house sits near the bottom; a variable-speed one on a big house, near the top.
A central air conditioner alone, keeping your furnace, installed
$5,942 to $14,450
or $99/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
An air conditioner and furnace together, installed
$8,898 to $23,000
or $148/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
A heat pump in the AC’s place, installed
$8,499 to $21,650
or $142/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Diagnostic visit, if it may be worth fixing
$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
The HVAC replacement cost estimator narrows it to your house. Then a tech measures, and you get the installed price in writing before anything is ordered.
With Comfort+ membership at $199 a year, the diagnostic visit is included, and half of each repair bill is banked toward replacing that system, up to $1,500.
What’s different in The Plains
Of the 589 owner homes in ZIP 20198, the Census counts 134 heating with propane and 16 with a gas line, and those are the houses where an air conditioner gets replaced by itself: the condenser outside and the coil on the furnace change, and the furnace keeps heating. Electricity is the main heat in 349 owner homes, and out on these lots that’s mostly heat pumps, which do the cooling in the same box. Replacing one of those is a different job, $8,499 to $21,650 installed.
The ZIP’s houses split by age. Close to three in ten went up before 1960, farmhouses and village houses that took ducts and central air long after they were built. About a quarter came since 2000, 153 of them from 2000 through 2009. A house from those years still on its builder’s condenser has cooled through close to twenty summers, and it likely runs on R-22, a refrigerant no longer produced.
Summer comes to The Plains at about 610 feet, with the Bull Run Mountains a few miles east-southeast. The nearest long temperature record, Warrenton 3 SE, sits 12 miles south and lower, at 500 feet, and averages about 21 days a year at 90 or hotter. A new air conditioner should be sized for those afternoons on your own house, from a load calculation that counts its windows, attic and shade, not copied off the old nameplate.
Then pick the spot with the trees in mind. Storms dropped trees on Bunker Hill Road near Featherstone Lane on July 12, 2022, along Halfway Road and The Plains Road in 65 knot gusts on August 7, 2023, and south of town near Old Tavern Road and US-17 on July 16, 2025. FEMA maps a Zone A flood area within about 300 meters of the town’s center point too. A new condenser does best on a level pad above wet ground, out past the drip line of the big trees.
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
ZIP 20198 as a whole, the Town included: its own homes are too few for steady Census figures.
When it’s time
When the cooling quits and the propane furnace inside is young, the outdoor unit and its coil are the part to replace. Read the furnace’s label: one a decade younger than the condenser is worth keeping. The new coil gets matched to that cabinet and its blower.
An air conditioner put in before 2010 most likely holds R-22, which hasn’t been made since 2020. A leak on one of those usually ends the repair road.
It’s the pump at the heart of the outdoor unit and its costliest part. Out of warranty on an older unit, the repair can come close to half the price of a new AC, the point where Goodman says replacing may be the better money.
Permits, locally
Fauquier County counts swapping an electric appliance for a similar one in the same spot as an ordinary repair that needs no permit. Moving an appliance to a new spot takes one. Source.
Our Virginia Class A contractor license, 2705192276, is on the side of the van.
Choosing who installs it
Questions to ask anybody who quotes you, us included.
Ask, because about one home in ten in the ZIP is in town, and that decides who weighs in. In town it’s the Town’s zoning permit, the Architectural Review Board for outside changes, then Fauquier County. Outside the limits it’s the County. A quote that never asks is guessing.
Ask how they picked the size. Copying the old nameplate repeats whatever was guessed when the house was built.
The outdoor unit and the coil on the furnace are rated as a pair. Ask whether the quote replaces both, and what happens to the line set.
A good company puts the repair price next to the replacement range and lets you choose. Already holding somebody’s big number? Take the free second opinion first.
Two of our crew going over a work order before the day's calls.
From our Google reviews
5.0 stars across 1,131 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Alex was very professional and the 2 technicians Oscar, and Derek was fast and efficient. They replace my A/C unit within the next day
Where we work
Next door to The Plains: Broad Run, Haymarket, Rectortown, Marshall and Gainesville.
Questions
Ask the Town first. Every property inside the limits is in its Historic District, and improvements there need the Architectural Review Board’s approval as well, so raise a new spot or a stand with the Town before anything is ordered. An approved Town zoning permit comes before the County building permit, and the County does the inspections.
Read the rating plate on the side of the outdoor unit; a heat pump’s model says so. Another tell: a unit that runs on a cold morning while the furnace stays quiet is a heat pump. Both are common in 20198, and the job differs, so check before booking.
$5,942 to $14,450 installed for a central air conditioner on its own, keeping the furnace you have; size and efficiency set where yours lands. An AC and furnace together run $8,898 to $23,000. The HVAC replacement cost estimator gives your house its own number.
It’s worth pricing. A heat pump cools exactly like an AC and also heats on mild days, so with your gas furnace it becomes dual fuel. A heat pump system runs $8,499 to $21,650 installed, and we’ll price it both ways.
Ready when you are
Call, or send the form at the top. A tech measures the house and puts the installed price in writing before anything is ordered, and if the old AC is worth fixing, 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 The Plains and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 1,131 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.