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Tankless water heaters and recirculating lines: Good deal or not?

For various reasons, our kitchen remodel includes replacing our tanked water heater with a tankless one. Our contractor asked if we wanted a recirculating line, approx. $2,000. (We can get the tankless with the pump so we could decide later about installing the line but then it would of course cost more.)


I seem to get conflicting info on how one works. Right now, it takes make three minutes of running water off an old tanked water heater to get warm water to the guest shower about 60 feet away from the tank. We live in SoCal and would rather not waster water but ....


If the recirculating line is always checking on temperature and adjusting wouldn't that be a big energy extra use in the "winter" maybe negating cost and environmental savings of having extra water loss during the three minute versus instant wait time for hot water? Also, does the extra pressure from a recirculating line affect the wear and tear on faucets over time?

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