We study the formation of an exciton condensate in GaAs coupled quantum wells at low temperatures. We show that the condensate consists of dark excitons, and extends over hundreds of {mu}m, limited only by the boundaries of the mesa. We find that the condensate density is determined by spin flipping collisions among the condensate excitons and with the thermal bath. We show that these processes, which convert dark excitons to bright, evaporatively cool the system to temperatures that are much lower than the bath temperature. We present a rate equations model, which explains the temperature and power dependence of the exciton density, and in particular - the large density buildup at low temperatures. We confirm the validity of the model by reproducing the unique behavior observed when a magnetic field is applied in a direction parallel to the layers.
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