The rock-soil thermal conductivity is an important basis for the design of ground heat exchanger. An effective measure to obtain thermal conductivity is the thermal response test. In order to detect the performance of most domestic thermal response testers for shallow geothermal energy, a performance testing platform is designed based on the line source theory. Five different types of thermal response testers are tested for reliability with resort to actual heat exchanging hole of buried pipe and testing platform respectively, and one of testers is detected by the testing platform. The results show that the outlet water temperature of the testing platform can be stably output according to control requirements. Therefore, the testing platform can simulate controllable "heat exchanging hole" to replace the actual hole for on-line performance testing of thermal response testers. The accuracy of the detected tester proofs to be qualified, with an error of measurement being 4.3%. As a result, the on-line precision and accuracy of the tester is concluded. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.