A solar melting ice and snow experimental system combined with phase change materials was fabricated and the effect of phase change materials on the system efficiency and the water production was studied under the conditions of "quick start", "energy supplement", "fluctuation" and "energy absorption". Based on the addition of the phase change material and process optimization in the experimental system, the differences in water production and energy consumption before and after the system improvement were compared and studied. The results show that the salt hydrates phase change materials can effectively control the temperature in the range of 3℃ to 5℃, and have good energy storage, release performance and anti-fluctuation ability, which can meet the temperature control requirements under various situations. By adding phase change materials and adopting optimized flow design, the experimental system can increase the water production by 11.4% and decrease the power consumption by 9.4% in the full simulation experiment, which can realize the efficient use of energy under different conditions and reduce the labor cost.