Accurate and reliable alternatives to mercury fever and laboratory thermometers are readily available at local pharmacies or through scientific and medical supply companies.

Non-mercury alternatives to mercury fever thermometers include digital, indium-gallium-tin and dot matrix thermometers. Digital thermometers have been the most commonly chosen alternative. Care should be taken to choose a digital thermometer that contains a changeable battery; some are not changeable. (The battery is a button cell battery and may contain 5-50 mg of mercury; it should be recycled through a battery collection program.) The organization Health Care Without Harm suggests that people choose a digital thermometer that does not have a flexible tip as the flexible tip is made of polyvinylchloride (PVC) which may form dioxin when incinerated. For taking a large number of temperatures, such as in a school medical office, a hand-held probe digital thermometer is a non-mercury alternative. Digital thermometers are also an alternative for mercury basal thermometers, but a person must purchase a digital thermometer that is specifically for this purpose.

For school laboratory applications, the inexpensive, non-mercury, alcohol laboratory thermometer is usually appropriate. Some slightly more expensive, mineral spirit-filled laboratory thermometers are guaranteed to be as accurate as mercury laboratory thermometers. For more advanced applications, a digital laboratory thermometer may be needed.