The thermal-hydraulic phenomena of inadequate core cooling caused by a cold-leg small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) were investigated experimentally at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research Integral System Test facility. The experiments were performed under the conditions of different break sizes (0.5 and 2%) in the cold leg followed by failure of the high-pressure injection system. The primary system cooldown is implemented by the secondary-side depressurization. The effectiveness of early initiation of the recovery action on reactor safety and related thermal-hydraulic phenomena are examined. The initiation criterion for recovery action considered here is determined by core water levels instead of core exit temperature based on the current emergency operating procedures. The impact of emergency core-cooling flow bypass phenomenon may significantly deteriorate the effectiveness of the recovery operation for a cold-leg SBLOCA. The results showed that the early initiation of secondary-side depressurization can effectively minimize the risk of core damage by preventing fuel rods from heating up throughout the transient. In addition, the core suffers a rather moderate thermal stress during the cooldown process.