diff --git a/pybossa/default_settings.py b/pybossa/default_settings.py
index 7db0eee931..1e0b06b28c 100644
--- a/pybossa/default_settings.py
+++ b/pybossa/default_settings.py
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@
 REDIS_SENTINEL = [('localhost', 26379)]
 REDIS_MASTER = 'mymaster'
 REDIS_DB = 0
+REDIS_SOCKET_TIMEOUT = 0.1
+REDIS_RETRY_ON_TIMEOUT = True
 
 REDIS_KEYPREFIX = 'pybossa_cache'
 
diff --git a/pybossa/sentinel/__init__.py b/pybossa/sentinel/__init__.py
index 15c0275e2e..0389835b8f 100644
--- a/pybossa/sentinel/__init__.py
+++ b/pybossa/sentinel/__init__.py
@@ -29,8 +29,11 @@ def __init__(self, app=None):
             self.init_app(app)
 
     def init_app(self, app):
+        socket_timeout = app.config.get('REDIS_SOCKET_TIMEOUT', 0.1)
+        retry_on_timeout = app.config.get('REDIS_RETRY_ON_TIMEOUT', True)
         self.connection = sentinel.Sentinel(app.config['REDIS_SENTINEL'],
-                                            socket_timeout=0.1)
+                                            socket_timeout=socket_timeout,
+                                            retry_on_timeout=retry_on_timeout)
         redis_db = app.config.get('REDIS_DB') or 0
         redis_master = app.config.get('REDIS_MASTER') or 'mymaster'
         self.master = self.connection.master_for(redis_master, db=redis_db)
diff --git a/settings_local.py.tmpl b/settings_local.py.tmpl
index 1124681802..9d93c26608 100644
--- a/settings_local.py.tmpl
+++ b/settings_local.py.tmpl
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ REDIS_SENTINEL = [('localhost', 26379)]
 REDIS_MASTER = 'mymaster'
 REDIS_DB = 0
 REDIS_KEYPREFIX = 'pybossa_cache'
+REDIS_SOCKET_TIMEOUT = 0.1
+REDIS_RETRY_ON_TIMEOUT = True
 
 ## Allowed upload extensions
 ALLOWED_EXTENSIONS = ['js', 'css', 'png', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'gif', 'zip']