diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 308405df9aa804a889a33b568c84fbbdb78f089c..4f34385fcbbe66303d9f8d719e30fdcc668ec5c0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ Each check may be initialised with some options:
 
 In addition some checks have specific options, see lib/checks.py for examples.
 
+In case you want to check lesser important services and configure very long check intervals, you may
+want to have another interval, global to all checks, for error retries. This can be set with the `error_every` option.
 
 Current state output
 --------------------
diff --git a/lib/__init__.py b/lib/__init__.py
index a5d12847744b48bdf8bc3b62099a4b5b268139d3..52d271d52599bcb63e6c55ccd9528c2fbb9da9ef 100644
--- a/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/__init__.py
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ config.install_attr('checks', Checks())
 # Each check may then individually be configured to run every N * tick
 config.install_attr('base_tick', 60)
 
+# How often we retry checks that are in error (-1 disables feature)
+config.install_attr('error_every', -1)
+
 # Email addresses to send to when an alert is triggered
 config.install_attr('emails.to', [])
 # The From: address
diff --git a/lib/checks.py b/lib/checks.py
index 47dabccd757feec525b2fd0c7856df9c333fac15..ad07f84bd48f5c32b2b4a92b0fe14ddf9f4edee7 100644
--- a/lib/checks.py
+++ b/lib/checks.py
@@ -55,7 +55,11 @@ class Check(object):
         pass
 
     def run(self, immediate=False):
-        self.every_count = (self.every_count + 1) % self.every
+        from . import config
+        self.every_count = (self.every_count + 1) % (
+                            self.every if self.ok or
+                                          config.error_every < 0
+                                       else config.error_every)
         if self.every_count == 0 or immediate:
             self.setup()
             if not self.check():