diff --git a/src/lib/connectors/http.js b/src/lib/connectors/http.js
index 3bb0d98ea..8014f3bcc 100644
--- a/src/lib/connectors/http.js
+++ b/src/lib/connectors/http.js
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ var _ = require('../utils');
 var qs = require('querystring');
 var ForeverAgent = require('./_custom_agent');
 var ConnectionAbstract = require('../connection');
+var zlib = require('zlib');
 
 /**
  * Connector used to talk to an elasticsearch node via HTTP
@@ -123,8 +124,9 @@ HttpConnector.prototype.request = function (params, cb) {
   var request;
   var response;
   var status = 0;
-  var headers;
+  var headers = {};
   var log = this.log;
+  var buffers = [];
 
   var reqParams = this.makeReqParams(params);
 
@@ -144,7 +146,21 @@ HttpConnector.prototype.request = function (params, cb) {
     if (err) {
       cb(err);
     } else {
-      cb(err, response, status, headers);
+      response = Buffer.concat(buffers);
+      var zipHdr = headers['content-encoding'];
+      if (zipHdr && (zipHdr.match(/gzip/i) || zipHdr.match(/deflate/i))) {
+        zlib.unzip(response, function(gzErr, uncompressedResponse) {
+          if(gzErr) {
+            err = gzErr;
+            response = response.toString('binary');
+          } else {
+            response = uncompressedResponse.toString('utf8');
+          }
+          cb(err, response, status, headers);
+        });
+      } else {
+        cb(err, response.toString('utf8'), status, headers);
+      }
     }
   }, this);
 
@@ -152,11 +168,10 @@ HttpConnector.prototype.request = function (params, cb) {
     incoming = _incoming;
     status = incoming.statusCode;
     headers = incoming.headers;
-    incoming.setEncoding('utf8');
     response = '';
-
+    buffers = [];
     incoming.on('data', function (d) {
-      response += d;
+      buffers.push(new Buffer(d));
     });
 
     incoming.on('error', cleanUp);
diff --git a/test/unit/specs/http_connector.js b/test/unit/specs/http_connector.js
index 63d7f8839..84ac67cc8 100644
--- a/test/unit/specs/http_connector.js
+++ b/test/unit/specs/http_connector.js
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ describe('Http Connector', function () {
   var expectSubObject = require('../../utils/expect_sub_object');
   var MockRequest = require('../../mocks/request');
   var MockIncommingMessage = require('../../mocks/incomming_message');
+  var zlib = require('zlib');
+  var estr = require('event-stream');
 
   nock.disableNetConnect();
 
@@ -302,6 +304,78 @@ describe('Http Connector', function () {
       });
     });
 
+    it('collects the whole request body (gzip compressed)', function (done) {
+      var server = nock('http://esjs.com:9200');
+      var con = new HttpConnection(new Host('http://esjs.com:9200'));
+      var elements = [];
+      for(var i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
+        elements.push({ "USER": "doc" });
+      }
+      var body = JSON.stringify(elements);
+      zlib.gzip(body, function(err, compressedBody) {
+        server
+          .get('/users/1')
+          .reply(200, compressedBody, {'Content-Encoding': 'gzip'});
+
+        con.request({
+          method: 'GET',
+          path: '/users/1'
+        }, function (err, resp, status) {
+          expect(err).to.be(undefined);
+          expect(resp).to.eql(body);
+          expect(status).to.eql(200);
+          server.done();
+          done();
+        });
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('collects the whole request body (deflate compressed)', function (done) {
+      var server = nock('http://esjs.com:9200');
+      var con = new HttpConnection(new Host('http://esjs.com:9200'));
+      var elements = [];
+      for(var i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
+        elements.push({ "USER": "doc" });
+      }
+      var body = JSON.stringify(elements);
+      zlib.deflate(body, function(err, compressedBody) {
+        server
+          .get('/users/1')
+          .reply(200, compressedBody, {'Content-Encoding': 'deflate'});
+
+        con.request({
+          method: 'GET',
+          path: '/users/1'
+        }, function (err, resp, status) {
+          expect(err).to.be(undefined);
+          expect(resp).to.eql(body);
+          expect(status).to.eql(200);
+          server.done();
+          done();
+        });
+      });
+    });
+
+    it('Can handle uncompress errors', function (done) {
+      var server = nock('http://esjs.com:9200');
+      var con = new HttpConnection(new Host('http://esjs.com:9200'));
+      var body = 'blah';
+      server
+        .get('/users/1')
+        .reply(200, body, {'Content-Encoding': 'gzip'});
+
+      con.request({
+        method: 'GET',
+        path: '/users/1'
+      }, function (err, resp, status) {
+        expect(err.errno).to.be(-3);
+        expect(resp).to.eql(body);
+        expect(status).to.eql(200);
+        server.done();
+        done();
+      });
+    });
+
     it('Ignores serialization errors', function (done) {
       var server = nock('http://esjs.com:9200');
       var con = new HttpConnection(new Host('http://esjs.com:9200'));