A novel thin film evaporator was designed based on thin film evaporating theory and combined it with a compression refrigeration system, which did an intensive study on novel thin film evaporator’s heat transfer performance, the following experiment conclusions are obtained: 1. Two kinds of evaporators’ cooling capacity increases linearly with evaporating temperature, under the same working condition, thin film evaporator’s cooling capacity is two times larger than common smooth tube evaporator’s; 2. As evaporating temperature increases, thin film evaporator’s inlet and outlet temperature difference is significantly lower than smooth tube evaporator’s, smooth tube evaporator’s average heat transfer temperature difference is 2℃ higher than thin film evaporator’s; 3. Regarding to each working condition, thin film evaporator’s heat transfer coefficient is obviously larger than smooth tube evaporator’s, when the temperature is between 0~5℃, thin film evaporator can maintain a relatively high heat transfer coefficient, heat transfer coefficient reaches the maximum value when it’s at 5℃’s working condition. The experiment data and conclusions demonstrate that thin film evaporator’s heat transfer performance has an advantage over smooth tube evaporator’s, it’s worthy promoting thin film evaporator’s development and use.