diff --git a/doc/source/admin/components.rst b/doc/source/admin/components.rst
index fbb8cbc..b3a4c3f 100644
--- a/doc/source/admin/components.rst
+++ b/doc/source/admin/components.rst
@@ -115,6 +115,11 @@
       A list of zookeeper hosts for Zuul to use when communicating
       with Nodepool.
 
+   .. attr:: session_timeout
+      :default: 10.0
+
+      The ZooKeeper session timeout, in seconds.
+
 
 .. _scheduler:
 
diff --git a/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py b/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py
index a9923c6..bba1922 100755
--- a/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py
+++ b/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py
@@ -154,8 +154,10 @@
         zookeeper = zuul.zk.ZooKeeper()
         zookeeper_hosts = get_default(self.config, 'zookeeper',
                                       'hosts', '127.0.0.1:2181')
+        zookeeper_timeout = float(get_default(self.config, 'zookeeper',
+                                              'session_timeout', 10.0))
 
-        zookeeper.connect(zookeeper_hosts)
+        zookeeper.connect(zookeeper_hosts, timeout=zookeeper_timeout)
 
         cache_expiry = get_default(self.config, 'webapp', 'status_expiry', 1)
         listen_address = get_default(self.config, 'webapp', 'listen_address',
diff --git a/zuul/zk.py b/zuul/zk.py
index 5ea4e56..dcaa172 100644
--- a/zuul/zk.py
+++ b/zuul/zk.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@
     def resetLostFlag(self):
         self._became_lost = False
 
-    def connect(self, hosts, read_only=False):
+    def connect(self, hosts, read_only=False, timeout=10.0):
         '''
         Establish a connection with ZooKeeper cluster.
 
@@ -100,10 +100,12 @@
         :param str hosts: Comma-separated list of hosts to connect to (e.g.
             127.0.0.1:2181,127.0.0.1:2182,[::1]:2183).
         :param bool read_only: If True, establishes a read-only connection.
-
+        :param float timeout: The ZooKeeper session timeout, in
+            seconds (default: 10.0).
         '''
         if self.client is None:
-            self.client = KazooClient(hosts=hosts, read_only=read_only)
+            self.client = KazooClient(hosts=hosts, read_only=read_only,
+                                      timeout=timeout)
             self.client.add_listener(self._connection_listener)
             self.client.start()