Taylor makes the red alcohol filled thermometers, which work well and are accurate, but with the caveat that the numbers on the body of the thermometer eventually wear off. Cheap though, and easy enough to get.
Electronic thermomters are not without caveats, they are:
1) needs stupid button-cell batteries, and guaranteed after replacing them, the next time you use it, they will be dead. Either you get the cheap dollar store button cells or the expensive drugstore ones, but no electronic probe thermometer will be intelligent enough to use rechargeable AA/AAA batteries, or gawd forbid, an internal battery that charges with a usb
2) Probes wear out.
3) Invariable, the body of the thermomter is made of plastic, you will be using this (plastic) device over a hot pot, on a stove, with lots of ambient heat. The plastic will melt, the battery cover will warp and batteries will fall out. About the same general stupidity and lack of customer and product knowledge as the Taylor alcohol one with the disappearing numbers.
4) And most important, the probes on electronic ones are tiny. This os not a bad thing if you want to shove it into a roast, but pretty stupid if you want a temperature of a 2liter( quart) pot.
If you had ten electronic thermometers and put them all in a pot of boiling sugar syrup, you'd get ten different readings--the ones at the bottom will read higher than those in the middle or top, the ones in the center will read higher than those around the perimeter. However, an alcohol thermometer has a large tip and will therefore sample a larger area, giving you a better general overall temperature of the liquid.
So you can guess my choice, alcohol thermometer any day. I find the accurate for syrups, caramel, Italian meringue, nougats, and even deep frying.
