The linear compressor has lately attracted considerable attention because of its low power consumption and excellent efficiency. For an efficient design, it is necessary to develop an analytical model of the linear compressor. The effective flow and force areas are important parameters to describe the behavior of the linear compressor, which are used to determine the mass flow rates through the valving systems and the forces on the valves, respectively. It is not easy to estimate these parameters because shapes of the valve systems of the linear compressor are so different from those of tile conventional valve systems. In this paper, we suggest method to measure experimentally the effective discharge flow and force areas of the linear compressor and analyze valve characteristic to apply the experimental results to their theoretical model.