Two packing materials, C18 and PLRP-S, are studied for on-line trace enrichment of phenolic compounds in water. Various precolumns of different internal diameter are also tested and the addition of an ion-pair reagent to increase retention and thus, breakthrough volumes of phenolic compounds, is studied. Best results are obtained when a PLRP-S precolumn is coupled on-line with a C18 analytical column and DAD detector. Addition of TBA considerably increases breakthrough volumes. In contrast, when a C18 precolumn is used, breakthrough volumes are lower and it is impossible to determine TCP and PCP, under the experimental conditions used, because of interference of other non-polar compounds in the samples. The performance of the system is evaluated with river and tap water and the preconcentration of 10 ml of sample in a PLRP-S precolumn involves a linear range between 1 μg l - 1 and 20 μl - 1 and limits of determination between 0.5 μg l - 1 and 1 μg l - 1 are obtained.