Agree, CAT I like most of us work with, the concern I have with the meters is if they survive. I have no problem connecting any meter to the low energy sources I typically encounter. Of course, normally I don't use them outside of their maximum ratings. Still, shit happens and I have damaged my fair share of meters. Which is why I ran these tests to get a feel for how robust the various brands are. These tests have been conducted at low energy levels as I have never been concerned with safety.
All of the meters shown held up beyond their maximum ranges.
This could maybe have been part of your robustness testing - how high will it go on the voltage range before it freaks out?
I don't normally connect a meter to a steady state source that is outside of it's rated limit. Even at low currents the meter can be damaged. I suspect there more than one fool watched one of my videos and saw me apply several kV to the same meter they owned and thought, hey, Joe shows my meter passed at 8kV so it should be fine to measure my 2kV MOT.
I've received dumb comments accusing me of connecting them directly to a capacitor bank or a DC source. The worse are when they equate what I show to some sort of safety test.
The most recent was a youtuber who claimed to work in education where they are involved with a EE program. It's rare I will take the time to hunt someone down but in this case I made an exception. Sure enough, they did not embellish their statements. As fast as they pulled their comments after posting a link on this site, I assume they are a member.
As far as the testing, I have seen what I was looking for. Even with these low energy transients, chemical exposures and mechanical wear test, there is certainly a difference between brands.