Abstract: Experimental studies on major factors affecting thermal characteristics of the plate-type evaporative condenser，i.e.，air wet-bulb temperature，condensation temperature and relative moisture were conducted. The results showed that condensation temperature and condensation pressure increased with increasing inlet air wet-bulb temperature. Compressor power consumption was greatly affected by inlet air relative humidity and wet-bulb temperature. Comparisons based on the same vapor-compression refrigeration unit showed that the heat flux of the plate-type evaporative condenser was larger by 30.5% than the tube-type evaporative condenser when the condensation temperature was 38℃. The lower the inlet air wet-bulb temperature，the larger the difference between the heat stream density of the plate-type evaporative condenser and the tube-type evaporative condenser at the same condensation temperature.