diff --git a/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.3.2-Release-Notes.md b/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.3.2-Release-Notes.md
index eab0a9881..c7717ee27 100644
--- a/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.3.2-Release-Notes.md
+++ b/Documentation/Release-Notes/MaxScale-2.3.2-Release-Notes.md
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ The systemd watchdog is now safe to use in all circumstances.
 
 By default it is enabled with a timeout of 60 seconds.
 
+### Readwritesplit
+
+#### `connection_keepalive`
+
+The default value of `connection_keepalive` is now 300 seconds. This prevents
+the connections from dying due to wait_timeout with longer sessions. This is
+especially helpful with pooled connections that stay alive for a very long time.
+
 ## Bug fixes
 
 ## Known Issues and Limitations
diff --git a/Documentation/Routers/ReadWriteSplit.md b/Documentation/Routers/ReadWriteSplit.md
index 179746b01..154825eb2 100644
--- a/Documentation/Routers/ReadWriteSplit.md
+++ b/Documentation/Routers/ReadWriteSplit.md
@@ -92,7 +92,8 @@ master_failure_mode=fail_on_write
 ### `connection_keepalive`
 
 Send keepalive pings to backend servers. This feature was introduced in MaxScale
-2.2.0 and is disabled by default.
+2.2.0. The default value is 300 seconds starting with 2.3.2 and for older
+versions the feature was disabled by default.
 
 The parameter value is the interval in seconds between each keepalive ping. A
 keepalive ping will be sent to a backend server if the connection is idle and it
@@ -103,7 +104,8 @@ client executes a query.
 This functionality allows the readwritesplit module to keep all backend
 connections alive even if they are not used. This is a common problem if the
 backend servers have a low _wait_timeout_ value and the client connections live
-for a long time.
+for a long time or if your workload is extremely read-heavy with writes done at
+lower intervals than the configured _wait_timeout_.
 
 ### `master_reconnection`
 
diff --git a/server/modules/routing/readwritesplit/readwritesplit.cc b/server/modules/routing/readwritesplit/readwritesplit.cc
index 356b1623a..0c348f8af 100644
--- a/server/modules/routing/readwritesplit/readwritesplit.cc
+++ b/server/modules/routing/readwritesplit/readwritesplit.cc
@@ -503,7 +503,7 @@ extern "C" MXS_MODULE* MXS_CREATE_MODULE()
             {"strict_multi_stmt",          MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,    "false"        },
             {"strict_sp_calls",            MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,    "false"        },
             {"master_accept_reads",        MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,    "false"        },
-            {"connection_keepalive",       MXS_MODULE_PARAM_COUNT,   "0"            },
+            {"connection_keepalive",       MXS_MODULE_PARAM_COUNT,   "300"          },
             {"causal_reads",               MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,    "false"        },
             {"causal_reads_timeout",       MXS_MODULE_PARAM_STRING,  "10"           },
             {"master_reconnection",        MXS_MODULE_PARAM_BOOL,    "false"        },