This paper presents the experimental results of an adsorption icemaker operating without refrigerant mass recovery and under two kinds of mass recovery cycles. The generation temperatures used in the experiments were 85 and 115 degrees C. At the lower generation temperature, the cycle with mass recovery in double stage produced the highest cycled mass, rate of ice production, cooling capacity and its COP was similar to that obtained in the cycle with conventional mass recovery. At generation temperature of 115 degrees C, the best performance was obtained with the cycle that employed conventional mass recovery. The cycle with mass recovery in double stage generated 42% more refrigerant mass than the cycle without mass recovery when the generation temperature was 85 degrees C, while at generation temperature of 115 degrees C, the cycle with conventional mass recovery generated 37% more mass than the latter. These results show that mass recovery can be an efficient process to enhance the performance of adsorption machines for ice making. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.2641700303311