2-year old water heater experiencing rust & corrosion

[KYtwenty3]

Anyone out there have a guess at what the cause of this corrosion and rust is?
This unit was allegedly brand new when it was installed less than two years ago.
I am a total novice here so I don't have a sense of how bad this is, etc.
I'm guessing I can remove the corrosion pretty easily (and some of the rust) but my main question is, what would cause this to occur in the first place and how bad is it?

Thanks for any help!

 

[havasu]

Looks like you have galvanic corrosion. Do you have dielectric unions installed?

 

[KYtwenty3]

I do not, no; although I'm suspecting now, after a little more investigation, that it may be as simple as the connection not being tight enough so that a very slow leak has been present since installation. Thanks for your response!

 

[breplum]

Someone had a really, really crappy install done. Contact the installer.
If you are handy and have tools and can read instructions you could use this type of flex connector:

 

[KYtwenty3]

Thank you, @breplum, that's kind of what I thought. I just wanted confirmation that I can probably go after the installer on this - thanks!

 

[Twowaxhack]

Thank you, @breplum, that's kind of what I thought. I just wanted confirmation that I can probably go after the installer on this - thanks!

Yah, Goodluck going after the installer 2 yrs down the road on a factory installed dielectric nipple that fell apart.