Internet Guide to Finding the Best Home Medical Thermometer

A digital home medical thermometer is becoming a standard family accessory. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find objective reviews of thermometers (or of most other personal health monitor products) on the internet. This article is intended as a list of sites that will guide you.

Consumer Reports in October 2005 reported on thermometers, but the full survey is available to subscribers only. A press release is here. The report found:

The more expensive ear thermometers take a reading in just one second. However, Consumer Reports found the readings might not be reliable….The forehead thermometer from Exergen is slid across the forehead to get a temperature. Yet at $50, it is also pricey and was not especially precise. The $10 Accu-Beep digital thermometer from BD did the best job. It beeps when properly placed under the tongue and gives an accurate reading in sixty seconds. If you want a thermometer reading even faster, Consumer Reports found two other very good performers that cost $13. They are the Vick's Comfort-Flex and Omron 20 Seconds Digital. Both thermometers will give a reading in 30 seconds or less.

Commercial sites like Amazon.com and Epinions include user reviews. Here are links to reports I've written, summarising reviews of several of the most popular models:

Braun Ear Thermometer - ThermoScan IRT 3020
Fairhaven Digital Basal Thermometer
Vicks Rectal Baby Thermometer

Medical sites – and some others – contain a lot of introductory information on temperature, on thermometers and on how to use them.

The Mayo Clinic in its Children's Health section offers a slide show titled "Choosing a Thermometer".

At WebMD Health is a long article, “Body temperature,” including an outline of the different types of thermometer and how to use them correctly, and HealthTouch Online has an article, “How to take an oral temperature.”

The eHow website includes a series of basic instruction sheets:

How to use a thermometer

How to take a temperature

How to use a baby thermometer

How to use a rectal thermometer

How to use a digital ear thermometer

How to chart your basal body termperature

 
Amazon.com is an excellent source of information on new products and the latest prices.

Ear Thermometers

A short article is at the How Stuff Works website, titled “How do ear thermometers work?” The iVillage: Pregnancy and Parenting site contains a doctor’s article, “Are ear thermometers accurate?” See also the Braun company website.

Babies

A comprehensive article at the Baby Center site discusses “How to take your baby’s temperature.”  Another article is titled “What kind of thermometer is the most accurate?” The Yale Medical Group has a useful article, “Measuring a baby’s termperature.” An interesting article talks about a design award for a Vicks baby thermometer. See also my own article, "Choosing the Best Baby Thermometer".

Basal Thermometers

Many women’s and pregnancy websites discuss these. An example is the Sister Zeus site. The Beyond Fertility commercial site offers an article, “Do I need a basal thermometer?”

Companies

Braun

This site contains a lot of information, including a comprehensive and useful article, titled Accuracy, which discusses such topics as the different types of thermometers, their accuracy and factors that can give false readings.

Exergen

Exergen provides a considerable amount of detail on its non-invasive thermometer products.

Fairhaven Health

This site highlights the company’s basal thermometers and it provides downloadable fertility/BBT charts.

LifeSource/A&D Medical

An introduction to the company’s products.

Lumiscope

An outline of the company’s products.

Omron

Omron introduces its products and also includes information on fevers.

Vicks

You can find here an introduction to the company’s products.

 
November 4th, 2005
Updated: March 28th, 2007
Updated November 7th, 2007