if safety is a concern, i'd be reluctant to walk away to a remote switchboard leaving a pair of probes plugged into a live mains outlet! what happens if the probe connected to the neutral falls out?
Then the other end of the probe also falls out because both parts of the device are connected together through the case somehow. In my old tester it was through a "nut and bolt" connection that held the two parts together while in the correct distance; in other tools it seems to be possible to click them together. Of course, something like that would also be mandatory for a tester, but I think all of them have this feature. It is also highly unlikely, since the springs in the sockets hold the probes pretty tightly and gravity pulls in an (almost) 90° angle so not much force in the resulting vector.
In the last 15 years nothing like that ever happened so I might feel overconfident.
it is now an exposed live wire
Even if that happens - would that be a problem? Serious question, I thought the shunts for voltage measurement are in MOhm range, so that should be safe? If I use a "liar stick" (not sure how you call those screwdrivers with lamp for one pole measurement in english) I am also connected directly to the phase, right?
in an area you are not directly supervising. or if you are called away suddenly, you end up leaving live test equipment unattended.
If I do any work on mains circuits I usually tell everyone I am busy until I restored a safe environment. Whoever calls me away needs to wait (unless something more serious happens, like wife or kid falls from the ladder but then, see above).
for those times when you need audible indication from the next room, far better to use a dedicated device: a plugpack or similar with a buzzer attached. or for making sound from a light fitting use an LED light bulb modified to remove the LEDs and replace them with a buzzer.
Well, for me even the two pole tester is kind of hard to justify when everyone else is just using a liar stick for that purpose. Yet another device is going too far even for me.
I just found out that the Uni-T apparently also has not thick probes so I will need to check voelkner again it seems. Any other suggestions?
Hmm Voelkner has the successor of my old one (a VC-55) on sale for 30€ right now. Maybe I will try that one.