Large amounts of heat are rejected by hot steel when it is cooling during the manufacturing process. In an earlier investigation a flat heat pipe (FHP) was constructed and tested in a factory for recovering this heat loss from steel wires by radiation and convection. In this paper, the performance of the FHP was examined by testing it at different configurations. In parallel a theoretical study was conducted. The FHP consisted of 14 stainless steel tubes connected by a bottom collector and a shell and tube condenser top header. The heat transfer area was increased by attaching a stainless steel at the back of the tubes. The effect of the back panel on heat recovery was examined by testing the FHP with the back panel and without it. In addition, the effects of the emissivity and absorptivity of the FHP surface on the thermal performance were investigated by testing the FHP both painted with high temperature black paint and with it unpainted. A theoretical modelling tool based on thermal network modelling was built. The theoretical prediction of the thermal performance of the FHP represented by the amount of heat recovery was compared with the experimental findings. The results of the FHP thermal performance were compared for four cases. The results indicated that heat recovery was greatly increased by painting the surface with thermal black paint. Furthermore, the back panel has a significant influence on the magnitude of heat recovery. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.