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Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are prone to frost when heating in a low-temperature and high-humidity environment, which deteriorates the heating performance of the unit. In this study, a new multi-evaporator mutual defrosting (MEMD) system was proposed to overcome the disadvantages of traditional defrosting methods: intermittent heating and inefficient defrosting. To validate the performance of the proposed defrosting technology, comparative tests were conducted in various outdoor environmental conditions. The experimental results showed that the MEMD system could continuously heat water during the defrosting period. In five experimental conditions, the MEMD system exhibited a lower water temperature drop range (2.1–2.8 °C) than that of a traditional reverse-cycle defrosting (RCD) system (6.0–7.3 °C). Due to the effective utilization of heat production during the heating period, the effective heat power (qe) of the unit increased by 0.7–1.4 kW, and the heat loss coefficient (HLC) of frosting and defrosting increased by an average of 6 % in the five experimental conditions, effectively reducing the heating capacity loss of the unit caused by defrosting. While defrosting, the MEMD system was able to utilize the remaining evaporators to absorb heat from the air and then deliver it to the defrosting evaporator. The equivalent defrosting energy efficiency (COPd) of the MEMD system was 17.5 % greater than that of the RCD system on average. During the heating and defrosting cycle, the energy saved when defrosting could increase the cycle coefficient of performance (CCOP) of heating by 3.7 %.