This two-part paper presents an overview of evaporation heat transfer mechanisms, a review of the experimental and prediction methods and a creation of a consolidated multi-lab database of 3601 data points and provides a detailed comparison of all the prediction methods to this broad database and finally proposes new prediction methods for the local heat transfer coefficient and the frictional pressure gradient of flow boiling within plate heat exchangers. Specifically, in Part 1, a description of the complex geometry of plate heat exchangers and an introduction to their major applications are described, followed by an extensive literature survey of experimental studies and associated prediction methods. While many prediction methods are found to work in the literature, the results of this study show that these methods have only been compared to their original data, but have not been vetted against a large database covering many fluids, plate designs and test conditions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and International Institute of Refrigeration. All rights reserved.