Vapor compression heat pumps are drawing more attention in energy saving applications. Microchannel heat exchangers can provide higher performance via less core volume and reduce system refrigerant charge, but little is known about their performance in heat pump systems under frosting conditions. In this study, the system performance of a commercial heat pump using microchannel heat exchangers as evaporator is compared with that using conventional finned-tube heat exchangers numerically and experimentally. The microchannel and finned-tube heat pump system models used for comparison of the microchannel and finned-tube evaporator performance under frosting conditions were developed, considering the effect of maldistribution on both refrigerant and air sides. The quasi-steady-state modeling results are in reasonable agreement with the test data under frost conditions. The refrigerant-side maldistribution is found remarkable impact on the microchannel heat pump system performance under the frost conditions. Parametric study on the fan speed and the fin density under frost conditions are conducted as well to figure out the best trade-off in the design of frost tolerant evaporators. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.