The transient heat transfer performance of spray cooling with R21 is studied experimentally. Three variation patterns of surface temperature depending on the initial surface temperature are observed. There is only one rapid temperature drop at lower initial surface temperature and two drops with a shoulder transition at higher initial surface temperature. Further increasing the initial surface temperature will deteriorate heat transfer. Based on the pool boiling heat transfer curve and one-dimensional transient heat conduction model, the temperature variation patterns and processes are discussed which relate to nucleate boiling, transition boiling and film boiling, respectively. The experimental results reveal that the deterioration temperature decreases with increase of the heating flux and nozzle-to-heater distance, while increases with the spray flow rate. Based on the experimental results a region map of temperature variation patterns in transient spray cooling is given. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.