How big the real risk is rather depends how you use it - if as a matter of routine you use it to show the thing you are going to work on is live, and then note that the indication stops when the circuit is isolated, this is a lot safer than turning off the circuit first, and then just noting no indication - getting a live indication as well as a dead one shows that the leads are intact, or at least were at that point.
Actually any meter with flexible leads is vulnerable to the lead failing - quite often problems with all sorts of test gear, not just voltage indicators can be traced to dicky cables or probes making poor contacts, so for example when measuring any sort of resistance, the first thing to do is short the probes and verify the leads are OK.
How big the real risk is rather depends how you use it - if as a matter of routine you use it to show the thing you are going to work on is live, and then note that the indication stops when the circuit is isolated, this is a lot safer than turning off the circuit first, and then just noting no indication - getting a live indication as well as a dead one shows that the leads are intact, or at least were at that point.
Actually any meter with flexible leads is vulnerable to the lead failing - quite often problems with all sorts of test gear, not just voltage indicators can be traced to dicky cables or probes making poor contacts, so for example when measuring any sort of resistance, the first thing to do is short the probes and verify the leads are OK.
