The problem of nonlinear rarefied Couette flow with heat transfer has been studied for both monatomic and diatomic gases using the Boltzmann equation with the Bhatnagar‐Gross‐Krook type models as the governing equation and the method of discrete ordinates as a tool. The calculated results have been compared with the existing experimental data in order to test the accuracy and the applicability of the statistical models for this one‐dimensional problem. The calculated density results are found to be in good agreement with available experimental data; the calculated heat flux solution for the linear case are found to always be lower than the experimental data of Teagan and Springer. There seems to be insufficient published experimental data available to draw rigid conclusions. However, the comparisons made here indicate that the statistical models are indeed reasonably accurate so that their use is justified in the type of problems investigated.