diff --git a/util.c b/util.c
index 03ca034a..62abb34b 100644
--- a/util.c
+++ b/util.c
@@ -319,7 +319,13 @@ json_t *json_rpc_call(CURL *curl, const char *url,
 	struct header_info hi = { };
 	bool probing = false;
 
-	/* it is assumed that 'curl' is freshly [re]initialised at this pt */
+	/* it is assumed that 'curl' is freshly [re]initialized at this pt */
+
+	if (probe) {
+		probing = !pool->probed;
+		/* Probe for only 15 seconds */
+		timeout = 15;
+	}
 	curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, timeout);
 
 #if 0 /* Disable curl debugging since it spews to stderr */