Tankless/inline water heater? Hot water circulation? suggestions?

[git]

Being homeowner construction newbs, we bought an older home in which the hot water heater was installed in a bathroom at the front of the house ... not far from the kitchen. A garage had been added on at the back of the house after original construction so we had the hot water heater moved back there. Of course, we didn't think about the consquences with hot water and now, for most of the year, it takes about 5 minutes of water running on the taps at the front of the house to get any hot water.

This is not working well so we wondered if
a) we should get inline water heaters for the two bathrooms and kitchen at the front of the house. One challenge here is that we're nearly out of circuit breakers on our 200amp box.
b) hot water circulator that sends the hot water in a slow circle to the front of the house and back in (we had a larger house long ago that had a circulation system like this). I have no idea what this cost us over the years of its operation.

It doesn't make sense to move the h/w heater back to the front of the house as there's no space and only about a 30 inch crawlspace.

Thoughts?

 

[breplum]

The ideal standard for not wasting water waiting is to utilize a recirculating pump with a dedicated, insulated loop.
A few brands of gas tankless heaters like Navien and Noritz have the pump built in with nice smart controls/adjustment and are 96% fuel efficient.
The cost a good amount of money bc you need a sufficient gas supply.
Navien has push button options so the pump doesn't even come on if you choose that feature.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Too bad Navien didn’t stand behind their product or warranty with me.

Their tech support was horrible and wasted my time and the customers time.

Their product had a manufacturing/design defect and they concealed that fact for a couple weeks on purpose.

I’ll never buy a Navien
I’ll never service another Navien
You couldn’t GIVE me a Navien if I actually had to install or use it.

Stay away from Navien

 

[havasu]

Twowax, since I'm just a little slow.... what is your opinion of the Navien Brand of tankless water heaters?

 

[CT18]

Too bad Navien didn’t stand behind their product or warranty with me.

Their tech support was horrible and wasted my time and the customers time.

Their product had a manufacturing/design defect and they concealed that fact for a couple weeks on purpose.

I’ll never buy a Navien
I’ll never service another Navien
You couldn’t GIVE me a Navien if I actually had to install or use it.

Stay away from Navien

Hey Two, what do you think about Navien. Just kidding. I am not a fan either.