The spray extractor for sampling volatile organic compounds in water, reported in Rev. Sci. Instrum.63, 3196 (1992), has been modified and optimized for high extraction efficiencies. A low‐flow spray nozzle is placed in the spray chamber, which produces very small droplets at water flow rates around 80 ml/min. Compounds extracted during a 2 min sampling period are trapped in a sorbent tube and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. With carrier gas (nitrogen) flow rates around 250 ml/min, spray‐and‐trap efficiencies up to 62% (tetrachloroethene) were achieved for various volatile organic compounds.