Absorption refrigeration units (ARU), which are part of absorption refrigeration devices (ARD) with a natural working fluid (water, ammonia and hydrogen) have a number of unique qualities. These qualities include: noiselessness, high reliability and long life; the possibility of using several energy sources in one device. At the same time, ARDs have increased energy consumption compared to similar compression models, and this does not allow them to expand their presence in the market of household refrigeration equipment. The ARU evaporator provides a predetermined temperature level in the chambers of the refrigeration appliance and the required cooling capacity. In this regard, it is relevant to search for the operating modes of the evaporator that provide the ARU maximum energy efficiency, which is the aim of this work. The thermal conditions of the direct-flow three-pipe design of the evaporator are simulated. The calculated ratio for a once-through evaporator is obtained taking into account the assumption of the adiabaticity of the evaporation process, when all the heat of the phase transition is used to cool the incoming flows of the purified vapor-gas mixture (VGM) and liquid ammonia to a minimum temperature. The analysis of the results of calculating the operating modes of the evaporator made it possible to determine the directions of ways to increase the energy efficiency of both the evaporator itself and the ARU in general: a) preliminary cooling of the purified VGM flow at the inlet of the adiabatic section of the evaporator with an under-recovery of up to 5 °C and up to 10 °C; b) preliminary cooling of the liquid ammonia flow at the inlet of the adiabatic section of the evaporator with an under-recovery of up to 5 °C for all ARU types; c) increasing the purification degree of the VGM flow in the absorber allows increasing the temperature of the purified VGM flow at the inlet of the adiabatic section of the evaporator by 4...6 °C, i. e. to reduce the costs of useful cooling capacity for pre-cooling by 10...15 %