diff --git a/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/GrizzlyHttpClient.java b/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/GrizzlyHttpClient.java
index 53fc8183..780d2022 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/GrizzlyHttpClient.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/GrizzlyHttpClient.java
@@ -179,8 +179,9 @@ public void start() {
         .withName(name), DEFAULT_SELECTOR_THREAD_COUNT);
     workerScheduler = getWorkerScheduler(schedulersConfig.withName(name + ".requester.workers"));
 
-    if (streamingEnabled) {
+    if (streamingEnabled && nonBlockingStreamWriter.isEnabled()) {
       // Only use a dedicated thread to the stream writer if streaming is enabled.
+      // Also, only use it if the feature is enabled.
       workerScheduler.submit(nonBlockingStreamWriter);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriter.java b/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriter.java
index b9e9d33e..f471ec44 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriter.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
  */
 package org.mule.service.http.impl.service.client;
 
+import static java.lang.Boolean.getBoolean;
 import static java.lang.Math.min;
 import static java.lang.Thread.currentThread;
 import static java.lang.Thread.sleep;
@@ -38,19 +39,27 @@
  */
 public class NonBlockingStreamWriter implements Runnable {
 
+  private static final boolean KILL_SWITCH = getBoolean("mule.http.client.responseStreaming.nonBlockingWriter");
+
   private static final Logger LOGGER = getLogger(NonBlockingStreamWriter.class);
   private static final int DEFAULT_TIME_TO_SLEEP_WHEN_COULD_NOT_WRITE_MILLIS = 100;
 
   private final AtomicBoolean isStopped = new AtomicBoolean(false);
   private final BlockingQueue<InternalWriteTask> tasks = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
   private final int timeToSleepWhenCouldNotWriteMillis;
+  private final boolean isEnabled;
 
-  public NonBlockingStreamWriter(int timeToSleepWhenCouldNotWriteMillis) {
+  public NonBlockingStreamWriter(int timeToSleepWhenCouldNotWriteMillis, boolean isEnabled) {
     this.timeToSleepWhenCouldNotWriteMillis = timeToSleepWhenCouldNotWriteMillis;
+    this.isEnabled = isEnabled;
   }
 
   public NonBlockingStreamWriter() {
-    this(DEFAULT_TIME_TO_SLEEP_WHEN_COULD_NOT_WRITE_MILLIS);
+    this(DEFAULT_TIME_TO_SLEEP_WHEN_COULD_NOT_WRITE_MILLIS, KILL_SWITCH);
+  }
+
+  public boolean isEnabled() {
+    return isEnabled;
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandler.java b/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandler.java
index d7944132..5ed221c9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandler.java
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ public STATE onBodyPartReceived(HttpResponseBodyPart bodyPart) throws Exception
   private STATE writeBodyPartToPipe(HttpResponseBodyPart bodyPart) throws IOException {
     int bodyLength = bodyPart.length();
     int spaceInPipe = availableSpaceInPipe();
-    if (spaceInPipe >= 0 && spaceInPipe < bodyLength) {
+    if (nonBlockingStreamWriter.isEnabled() && spaceInPipe >= 0 && spaceInPipe < bodyLength) {
       // There is no room to write everything, so we defer the content writing to the output stream. Also, to avoid
       // receiving more bodyParts temporarily, we have to pause the READ events.
       final PauseHandler pauseHandler = bodyPart.getPauseHandler();
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriterTestCase.java b/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriterTestCase.java
index 748bcb98..ff690131 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriterTestCase.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/NonBlockingStreamWriterTestCase.java
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ public class NonBlockingStreamWriterTestCase extends AbstractMuleTestCase {
   @Before
   public void setUp() {
     // not scheduling always to test the sync test cases
-    nonBlockingStreamWriter = new NonBlockingStreamWriter(TEST_TIME_TO_SLEEP_WHEN_COULD_NOT_WRITE_MILLIS);
+    nonBlockingStreamWriter = new NonBlockingStreamWriter(TEST_TIME_TO_SLEEP_WHEN_COULD_NOT_WRITE_MILLIS, true);
   }
 
   @After
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ public void interruptTheThreadDoesntInterruptTheWriterIfNotStopped() throws Inte
   @Test
   public void interruptTheThreadAfterStopWillInterruptTheSleep() throws InterruptedException {
     int ridiculouslyBigSleepMillis = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
-    NonBlockingStreamWriter writer = new NonBlockingStreamWriter(ridiculouslyBigSleepMillis);
+    NonBlockingStreamWriter writer = new NonBlockingStreamWriter(ridiculouslyBigSleepMillis, true);
     Thread threadOutsideTheStaticExecutor = new Thread(writer);
     threadOutsideTheStaticExecutor.start();
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandlerTestCase.java b/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandlerTestCase.java
index cf1c03de..a3eccb84 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandlerTestCase.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/mule/service/http/impl/service/client/async/ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandlerTestCase.java
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ public class ResponseBodyDeferringAsyncHandlerTestCase extends AbstractMuleTestC
   private final PollingProber prober = new PollingProber(PROBE_TIMEOUT, POLL_DELAY);
 
   private final ExecutorService workersExecutor = newFixedThreadPool(5);
-  private final NonBlockingStreamWriter nonBlockingStreamWriter = new NonBlockingStreamWriter();
+  private final NonBlockingStreamWriter nonBlockingStreamWriter = new NonBlockingStreamWriter(100, true);
 
   private static final String READ_TIMEOUT_PROPERTY_NAME = "mule.http.responseStreaming.pipeReadTimeoutMillis";