The hot and humid air circulating in the compartments of a refrigerator is cooled and dehumidified as it flows through the evaporator. The frost accumulation on the evaporator surface is an unwanted consequence of this process and therefore, it must be periodically removed by defrosting. When this process is automatic, water from drains via a drain and is generally collected in a tray installed on the compressor. On the tray, water must evaporate naturally as heat is transferred from the hot surfaces of the compressor. However, if the pair compressor / tray is not able to evaporate all the water, the overflow occurs. This problem has become commonplace in modern refrigerator large internal volume and has affected much of the refrigerator manufacturers, since it undermines the company's image with its customers because of the number of service calls.

POLO laboratory experimental apparatus has an instrumented able to reproduce the typical environmental and operational conditions for a variety of compressors and evaporation trays. Thus, it is possible to anticipate overflow problems and identify alternative solutions for different markets quickly and efficiently, without the need for traditional and expensive overflow testing in the industry. Although the laboratory has simulation models to predict the water evaporation rate which can be used as a tool in the development of more efficient evaporation system designs.