In this study, the performance of a multi-stage condensation heat pump was examined. Computer simulation programs were developed for 1-stage, 2-stage, and 3-stage heat pumps and R11, R123, R141b were tested as working fluids. The results showed that coefficients of performance(COPs) of an optimized 3-stage condensation heat pump are 25∼40% higher than those of a conventional 1-stage heat pump. The increase in COP, however, differed among the fluids tested. The improvement in COP largely stems from the decrease in average LMTD values in the condensers of the multi-stage system. For the 3-stage condensation heat pumps, optimized UA values of three condensers were determined to be 30∼40% of the UA value of the total condenser regardless of the working fluid. When the amount of cooling water entering into the intermediate and high-stage subcoolers is roughly 10% of the total condenser cooling water respectively, the optimum performance was achieved for the 3-stage condensation heat pump.