We live S Florida in a one floor condo on the first floor of a 14 story building and wait a long time for hot water, especially at our kitchen sink in the middle of condo and master bath shower & sinks at the end of the condo. It often takes minutes to get hot water which is frustrating and wasteful. The hot water heater is in a utility closet near the front door. We're not sure why we have this problem throughout the condo. The bathroom sinks seem to get hot water before the shower and the kitchen sink that is closer can take the longest time. The kitchen sink wall backs up to the closest bathroom sink (we have his & her vanities) which gets hot water before all the others I mentioned. We were wondering - if the hot water lines are installed close to the air conditioning ducts, could that be cooling off the water? But it still wouldn't explain the differences in the timing and, in any case, a fix for that problem may be cost prohibitve. My husband recently learned of a hot water recirculation pump that sounds like it may solve our problem. Does anyone have experience with this pump and would you recommend this or some other method? Is there one pump that is better than the others, taking cost into consideration?

Not sure if it makes a difference but we have an 80 gallon hot water heater that was installed by the previous owners and is too big for our needs. We have been told that it is still in good shape and doesn not need to be replaced.