diff --git a/lib/HttpClient/CurlClient.php b/lib/HttpClient/CurlClient.php
index 3fd75d384..dcc107c1b 100644
--- a/lib/HttpClient/CurlClient.php
+++ b/lib/HttpClient/CurlClient.php
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public static function instance()
 
     protected $userAgentInfo;
 
-    protected $enablePersistentConnections = null;
+    protected $enablePersistentConnections = true;
 
     protected $enableHttp2 = null;
 
@@ -65,10 +65,6 @@ public function __construct($defaultOptions = null, $randomGenerator = null)
         $this->randomGenerator = $randomGenerator ?: new Util\RandomGenerator();
         $this->initUserAgentInfo();
 
-        // TODO: curl_reset requires PHP >= 5.5.0. Once we drop support for PHP 5.4, we can simply
-        // initialize this to true.
-        $this->enablePersistentConnections = function_exists('curl_reset');
-
         $this->enableHttp2 = $this->canSafelyUseHttp2();
     }