Abstract Background Water based paint has improved the work environment during occupational as well as domestic painting. Development of water-based paint formulations demanded an addition of anti-fungal/anti-microbial preservatives, and isothiazolinones (ITZ) have been frequently utilized over the last two decades. Isothiazolinones are known to cause skin sensitization and is furthermore suspected to cause problems from the respiratory tract. To assess professional painters’ exposure to air-borne ITZ, there is a need to develop an easy-to-use light-weight portable sampling technique of the three most abundant ITZ. Method Three different designs of SPE-samplers and three different chemistries were evaluated regarding resistance to flow, handling during sampling, analyte break-through and sample elution. The quantification was performed using RP-HPLC-UV. Results SPE-samplers are easy-to-use in a field setting. However, only the novel disc-type designs of SPE worked with the portable pumps because of the relatively low pressure drop over the disc. SPE disks can be obtained either as a syringe-type or as a filter-type. While the syringe-type can be used straight away the filter-type has to be mounted in a sampler. However, the latter design outperformed the former regarding sampling as well as elution procedure. Conclusion The novel design of SPE-discs works well for sampling of ITZ down to 1 nmol/m3 (0.15 µg/m3) when sampling for 8 hours. It is thereby possible to assess workers’ exposure to air concentrations of ITZ previously reported using impinger flasks.