diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index ff20de137..98adadffa 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -478,7 +478,7 @@ void init_default_instance()
 	defproxy.defsrv.maxconn = 0;
 	defproxy.defsrv.max_reuse = -1;
 	defproxy.defsrv.max_idle_conns = -1;
-	defproxy.defsrv.pool_purge_delay = 1000;
+	defproxy.defsrv.pool_purge_delay = 5000;
 	defproxy.defsrv.slowstart = 0;
 	defproxy.defsrv.onerror = DEF_HANA_ONERR;
 	defproxy.defsrv.consecutive_errors_limit = DEF_HANA_ERRLIMIT;
diff --git a/src/server.c b/src/server.c
index bec498c2a..14e1a938c 100644
--- a/src/server.c
+++ b/src/server.c
@@ -1818,10 +1818,9 @@ struct server *new_server(struct proxy *proxy)
 	srv->agent.proxy = proxy;
 	srv->xprt  = srv->check.xprt = srv->agent.xprt = xprt_get(XPRT_RAW);
 
-	srv->pool_purge_delay = 5000;
-	srv->max_idle_conns = -1;
-	srv->max_reuse = -1;
-
+	/* please don't put default server settings here, they are set in
+	 * init_default_instance().
+	 */
 	return srv;
 }