The influences of the performance parameters and the heat transfer characteristics of the absorption heat pump using ammonia-water mixture are theoretically carried out. There is a pronounced effect of the ammonia concentration after rectifier on the temperature glides that has been investigated. At =0.9000 and saturation pressures of 75 and 0.5bar, the temperature glides are 64.4 degrees C and 81.21 degrees C, respectively, whereas these glides are 0 degrees C and 16.1 degrees C at =0.9999 and at the same pressures. This mixture property considerably affects the absorption system performance and the design of the rectifier as well as other absorption components. A correlation of the Nusselt number, Nu, is developed and compared with some published work in the literature for plate type heat exchanger. The effects of ammonia concentration , mass fraction spread , specific solution circulation ratio f, and pressure ratio R-p on the refrigerant mass flow rate, the pressure drop, and the heat transfer coefficients during the condensation, the evaporation, and the absorption processes are investigated. It was found that increasing ammonia mass fraction spread results in both specific circulation ratio f and R-p that have insignificant effects on the refrigerant mass flow rate. Mounting at constant f reduces the pressure drop gradually and subsequently starts to increase as escalates. The ammonia concentration has insignificant effect on the evaporation heat transfer coefficient but has a little effect on the condensation and the absorber heat transfer coefficients. The ammonia mass fraction spread and f have considerable effects on the heat transfer coefficient for different absorption heat pump components. R-p has a pronounced effect on the evaporation heat transfer coefficient, although it has a slight effect on the condensation and the absorber heat transfer coefficients. The effect of R-p on the heat transfer coefficient may be eliminated in the absorber for >0.18. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.