As much as attention that has been paid to surface treatment as an efficient, and environmentally friendly approach toward fouling mitigation, the characterization of many innovative modified surfaces has become a matter of much debate. The latter is closely associated with the intermolecular interaction energies which would profoundly influence the adhesion of precursors onto the modified surfaces. In this study, based on the extended Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey and Overbeek (DLVO) theory, a new criterion is proposed to predict the propensity of a surface when prone to crystallization fouling or biofouling. Thereafter, the proposed criterion is examined against the present experimental results as well as those from previous studies where the required information for the determination of new criterion is available. The comparison shows that deposit formation onto heat transfer surfaces decreases with increasing the new proposed fouling propensity indicator criterion. Moreover, nearly 75% of the collated crystallization and biological fouling data points are predictable with this criterion and reasons for those that are not in compliance with the proposed criterion are discussed.