In defense of the poor SR1, they weren't "blowing up", the environmental seal was popping off. They still worked; no actual explosions.
I have a friend that bought one and it drew over 2" of water (high cracking pressure) and creeped 7 PSI right out the box. That would piss me off royally. On a boat recently, I fixed one for a fellow diver who had a HP leak. It turned out that the yoke connector was loose and the o-ring had extruded and gotten mangled. I happened to have an o-ring that fit. No torque wrench, though! We just clamped it on the tank and put some torque on the reg body. I suspect that's how it got loose; someone probably grabbed the tank by the reg and pulled it out of the water. The guy said that the SR1 was brand new.
Anyhow, those are my experiences with them. Not so great.