A lot of cheaper CAT litter rated meters will display 1000+ volts DC, but would you really want to trust them at oopsie zap time?
and the leads, will they handle it?
I hope anyone playing round with 1000V knows a lot more about electrical safety and the meter is not their only protection!
I haven’t come across anything that will do 1000V DC for under Aud100.
The Voltcraft does have the “lead in the wrong hole” input alert warning that Fluke 87-I has. It si called "incorrect wiring alarm" in the manual. Only in the VC-271, not in the VC-270. Haven’t found another cheapie that does that.
I'm with you on the 'hope' thing
Unfortunately most buyers of cheapie meters, especially those that think they've dodged a Fluke-esque price bullet,
scoring a 'same specs' 1000 volt CAT litter rated bargain,
know next to nothing about electrical safety, and or not quite enough in a weird fault situation,
or the difference between AC/DC voltage, AC/DC current, Continuity, Buzzer etc, or the correct mode/dial selection and remembering to change modes,
and having the leads plugged in the right or wrong way, and there's 4 or more? wrong combos on that,
assuming the leads are ok, meter batteries not flat, and the meter hasn't dived onto concrete or kitchen tiles one time too many
Let's not forget those unfortunates whose meters
and themselves are no longer with us,
plugging into the '10 or 20 amp UNFUSED' current inputs and attempting to measure a high voltage source,
for a nanosecond of awesome fireworks and flames.
The manufacturers haven't done any notable favors to clue up newb and pro-ish buyers on actual usage and real world watch-its,
the back office coffeeholic marketing teams must assume all the buyers/target market are EEs, meter designers,
and oopsie survivors buying their second meter, after cooking their first one,
and wiser once/thrice bitten Youtubers
Black and white folded A4 print outs supplied with the meters can't be that expensive surely
Fudging specs to flog a mediocre meter I can understand, but a big flying FYI goes out to marketing teams:
customers won't buy that meter brand again if it pops due to clueless operator error,
or if they're not around anymore to buy another meter, due to gross clueless operator blunder