The effect of nozzle height on heat transfer of a hot steel plate cooled by an impinging liquid jet is not well understood. Previous studies have been based on the dimensionless parameter z/d. To test the validity of this dimensionless parameter and to investigate gravitational effects on the jet, stagnation velocity of an impinging liquid jet were measured and the cooling experiments of a hot steel plate were conducted for z/d from 6.7 to 75, and an inverse heat conduction method is applied for the quantitative comparison. Also, the critical instability point of a liquid jet was examined over a range of flow rates. The experimental velocity data for the liquid jet were well correlated with the dimensionless number 1/F $r_{z}$$^2$based on distance. It was thought that the z/d parameter was not valid for heat transfer to an impinging liquid jet under gravitational forces. In the cooling experiments, heat transfer was independent of z when 1/F $r_{z}$$^2$< 0.187(z/d = 6.7). However, it was found that the heat transfer quantity for 1/F $r_{z}$$^2$=0.523(z/d = 70) is larger 11% than that in the region for 1/F $r_{z}$$^2$=0.187. The discrepancy between these results and previous research is likely due to the instability of liquid jet.uid jet.