Actually, after futher review of what happened, it was maintenance that possibly (kinda sorta) contributed to the water leak. The day before the leak, I was doing maintenance on my washer and dryer. I was cleaning the lint from the dryer vent. Also, I was cleaning out the washer tub. I think I must have moved the utility sink a bit and caused the pex supply line that goes to the sink to move a bit, maybe causing it to loosen and then the heat and water pressure built up and popped the hot water supply line out of the bottom of the faucet connection. Either that or the rubber o-ring just gave out from the heat and water pressure. So, I changed both lines to the steel braided type that I have on my washing machine supply lines. This should hopefully prevent any further issues. And, yes, live wire oak, although you seem to assume I do not do maintenance around my house, I do indeed regularly perform maintenance around my house, to include: flushing the water heater twice a year, cleaning the dryer vent, cleaning the gutters, cleaning and servicing my water softener, changing the carbon and sediment filters for my well water, prepping and staining my deck, lawn/landscaping maintenace, maintenance of lawn equipment (riding mower, trimmer, blower), maintaining and cleaning of pellet stove, maintenance on two automobiles....etc...etc...etc... I guess I have to add inspecting supply lines to that list. And, yes, brickeye, I could not agree with you more. Maintenance is less work than paranoia......that is why I try to do as much as I can around my house to avoid the catastrophes..... thanks. mm

By turning off the gas, you are obviously saving money wasted on heating water that is never going to get used. But turning off the gas has nothing to do with a leak. The hot water heater (and pretty much your whole house) has about as much chance of leaking with the gas on as with the gas off. The obvious worst case being a frozen pipe bursting. The only way to eliminate the possibility of an undetected water leak (or pipe break) from wasting lots of water while you are away is to shut the water off at the meter. (If you only shut it off at the house and the water line between the meter and house freezes, then turning the water off at the house did not good. Generally speaking the water line to the house should be buried deep enough to prevent freezing, but I've seen it happen). But to state it again, turning off the water heater should have no effect on will it leak or not. The only thing that COULD make it leak is if there is some flaw or something that has corroded that begins to leak when the tank shrinks ever so slightly because the tempurature of the tank decreases. But the odds of that are REMOTE.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'd hoped there was a less tedious and more eco-friendly method. The water will be (or should be) to hot to go and pour on the grass and plants, and I just can't let all that run down the drain....I guess I could use the trash can to let it cool down. Guess I'll see if I can find the tub specifications...or try to remember geometry and do some calculations? Then I'll definitely need a nice long bath!

Marie26, I don't believe turning up the thermostat will increase the speed at which your water heats. Such appliances normally turn on at full power during start up, as it gives you hot water faster, and then reduce power when they reach the required setting. Anyway, once it does heat up your water may be too hot and need mixing with cold to get the ideal temperature. Unfortunatly, the hotter water becomes the less readily energy from the element transfers in to it, thus the efficiency goes down with increasing temperature. It's preferable to heat a large volume of water to the right temperature than try to super-heat a little water and mix it with cold. You may find that you're a good distance from the water heater and pipe insulation improves the speed at which hot water reaches you. I have a normal tank heater, so the time it takes for hot water to reach me is mostly pushing standing cold water out the pipes and the heat lost by the pipes themselves. Thus your delay may not even be caused by the water heater. Insulation did improve the hot water in my house, and it has allowed me to turn the temperature down a bit now that I'm not passing it through a long metal pipe before using it.