diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 440f2e87b7..764010d5d8 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ gem 'rails-settings-cached'
 gem 'simple-navigation'
 gem 'statsd-instrument'
 gem 'ruby-oembed', require: 'oembed'
+gem 'rack-timeout'
 
 gem 'react-rails'
 gem 'browserify-rails'
@@ -89,5 +90,4 @@ group :production do
   gem 'rails_12factor'
   gem 'redis-rails'
   gem 'lograge'
-  gem 'rack-timeout'
 end
diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
index ef9364897c..abfb5bb8c1 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
   rescue_from ActionController::RoutingError, with: :not_found
   rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, with: :not_found
   rescue_from ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken, with: :unprocessable_entity
+  rescue_from Rack::Timeout::RequestExpiryError, Rack::Timeout::RequestTimeoutError, with: :request_timeout
 
   before_action :store_current_location, except: :raise_not_found, unless: :devise_controller?
   before_action :set_locale
@@ -69,6 +70,13 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
     end
   end
 
+  def request_timeout
+    respond_to do |format|
+      format.any  { head 503 }
+      format.html { render 'errors/503', layout: 'error', status: 503 }
+    end
+  end
+
   def current_account
     @current_account ||= current_user.try(:account)
   end
diff --git a/app/views/errors/503.html.haml b/app/views/errors/503.html.haml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f88d50d365
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/views/errors/503.html.haml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+- content_for :page_title do
+  Request timeout
+
+- content_for :content do
+  It took too long to process your request. This might be a temporary server issue
diff --git a/config/initializers/timeout.rb b/config/initializers/timeout.rb
index 06a29492e6..de87fd906c 100644
--- a/config/initializers/timeout.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/timeout.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
+Rack::Timeout::Logger.disable
+Rack::Timeout.service_timeout = false
+
 if Rails.env.production?
   Rack::Timeout.service_timeout = 90
-  Rack::Timeout::Logger.disable
 end