The water lithium bromide absorption cooling machine was investigated theoretically in this paper. A detailed solution procedure was proposed and validated. A parametric study was conducted over the entire admissible ranges of the desorber, condenser, absorber and evaporator temperatures. The performance of the machine was evaluated based on the circulation ratio which is a measure of the system size and cost, the first law coefficient of performance and the second law exergy efficiency. The circulation ratio and the coefficient of performance were seen to improve as the temperature of the heat source increased, while the second law performance deteriorated. The same qualitative responses were obtained when the temperature of the refrigerated environment was increased. On the other hand, simultaneously raising the condenser and absorber temperatures was seen to result in a severe deterioration of both the circulation ratio and first law coefficient of performance, while the second law performance indicator improved significantly. The influence of the difference between the condenser and absorber exit temperatures, as well as that of the internal recovery heat exchanger on the different performance indicators was also calculated and discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.