Evaporation heat transfer characteristics have been investigated experimentally when distilled water is sprayed on the outside wall of horizontal tubes in a evaporator. This problem is of particular interest in the design of evaporator of an absorption system. Hydrophilic surface treatment was employed to increase the wettability on copper tubes. The results indicate that evaporation heat transfer with hydrophilic tubes is shown to be 25-44% higher than that with bare tubes at evaporation pressure of 31.8 Torr(evaporation temperature<TEX>$ 30^{circ}C). Evaporation heat transfer rates of hydrophilic treatment tubes are improved substantially, comparing with those of conventional copper tubes in the wide range of operating parameters, such as water inlet temperatures, water mass flow rates and evaporation pressures.