diff --git a/django_q/cluster.py b/django_q/cluster.py
index a250cf0..0f057ec 100644
--- a/django_q/cluster.py
+++ b/django_q/cluster.py
@@ -319,10 +319,17 @@ def monitor(result_queue, broker=None):
     name = current_process().name
     logger.info(_("{} monitoring at {}").format(name, current_process().pid))
     db.close_old_connections()
+    connection_timer = timezone.now()
     for task in iter(result_queue.get, 'STOP'):
+        # check db connection timeout
+        if (timezone.now() - connection_timer).total_seconds() >= Conf.DB_TIMEOUT:
+            db.close_old_connections()
+            connection_timer = timezone.now()
+        # acknowledge
         ack_id = task.pop('ack_id', False)
         if ack_id:
             broker.acknowledge(ack_id)
+        # save the result
         save_task(task)
         if task['success']:
             logger.info(_("Processed [{}]").format(task['name']))
@@ -341,6 +348,7 @@ def worker(task_queue, result_queue, timer, timeout=Conf.TIMEOUT):
     name = current_process().name
     logger.info(_('{} ready for work at {}').format(name, current_process().pid))
     db.close_old_connections()
+    connection_timer = timezone.now()
     task_count = 0
     # Start reading the task queue
     for task in iter(task_queue.get, 'STOP'):
@@ -360,6 +368,10 @@ def worker(task_queue, result_queue, timer, timeout=Conf.TIMEOUT):
                 result = (e, False)
         # We're still going
         if not result:
+            # check db connection timeout
+            if (timezone.now() - connection_timer).total_seconds() >= Conf.DB_TIMEOUT:
+                db.close_old_connections()
+                connection_timer = timezone.now()
             # execute the payload
             timer.value = task['kwargs'].pop('timeout', timeout or 0)  # Busy
             try:
diff --git a/django_q/conf.py b/django_q/conf.py
index 9ca2146..f45d853 100644
--- a/django_q/conf.py
+++ b/django_q/conf.py
@@ -64,6 +64,9 @@ class Conf(object):
     # Failures are always saved
     SAVE_LIMIT = conf.get('save_limit', 250)
 
+    # Sets the time in seconds to check for stale database connections
+    DB_TIMEOUT = conf.get('db_timeout', 60)
+
     # Disable the scheduler
     SCHEDULER = conf.get('scheduler', True)
 
diff --git a/django_q/tests/test_cluster.py b/django_q/tests/test_cluster.py
index 37dc79a..75eec79 100644
--- a/django_q/tests/test_cluster.py
+++ b/django_q/tests/test_cluster.py
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ def test_cluster(broker):
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 def test_async(broker, admin_user):
     broker.list_key = 'cluster_test:q'
+    Conf.DB_TIMEOUT = 0
     broker.delete_queue()
     a = async('django_q.tests.tasks.count_letters', DEFAULT_WORDLIST, hook='django_q.tests.test_cluster.assert_result',
               broker=broker)
@@ -237,6 +238,7 @@ def test_async(broker, admin_user):
     assert fetch(k, 100) is None
     assert result(k, 100) is None
     broker.delete_queue()
+    Conf.DB_TIMEOUT = 60
 
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db