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Guest
. 15 minutes to a half hour is a good amount of time unless you have let saltwater dry in/on your regulator -
I'm not sure 15 to 20 minutes is enough to prevent possible salt deposits on unprotected threads. On my scubapro BP 1sts, I'm conserned with the threads on the seat retainer, the yoke nut, and the ambient chamber which sustain SW incursion as they are not protected by an o-ring seal. Same with the HP hose to SPG connection and the LP hose to 2nd stage connection. Same with some of the other various threaded connections on 2nd stages. SW will penetrate these threads during a dive, aided by the pressure of depth. You can't produce any flow around these threads without disassembly so you have to let nature reduce the salt as it works to correct an imbalance. I opt for hours of soaking and often overnight. As long as the system is pressurized or well sealed, I don't see where any harm can come of it.
The benefit is my regs usually go quite a number of years between "annual" services and show little to no corrosive/salt buildup when they are serviced.
On extended trips, like live-a-boards, I use a small squirt bottle to give my unprotected ambient chamber a quick rinse at the end of each dive. Deposits and corrosion on threads are a problem that can usually be dealt with. But on dynamic o-ring seating surfaces, they can result in high repair costs or the early retirement of a regulator.