This paper presents the study of a tubular adsorber of solar adsorption cooling machine, driven by flat-type solar collector with three different configurations of glazes: (i) single glazed cover, (ii) double glazed cover and (iii) transparent insulation material (TIM) cover. The modelling and the analysis of the adsorber are the key point of such studies, because of the complex coupled heat and mass transfer phenomena that occur during the working cycle. The adsorber is heated by solar energy and contains a porous medium constituted of activated carbon AC-35 reacting by adsorption with methanol. The simulation technique takes into account the variation of ambient temperature and solar intensity along a simulated day, which corresponds to a total daily insolation of 26,12 MJ/m(2) and an average ambient temperature of 27.7 degrees C. The obtained solution allows to know the daily thermal behaviour of a tubular adsorber. The model is used to study the influence of the solar collector type and its surface on the system's performances COPth and COPS (thermal and solar performance coefficient, respectively). It is found that the type of collector configuration and its surface have a big difference on the system's performance. Copyright (C) 2016, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.