diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/app/controllers/kubernetes/clusters_controller.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/app/controllers/kubernetes/clusters_controller.rb
index 9e4eaa9acb..7d348fda99 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/app/controllers/kubernetes/clusters_controller.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/app/controllers/kubernetes/clusters_controller.rb
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ def update_secret(namespace)
   def secret_exist?(secret)
     @cluster.client.get_secret(secret.fetch(:metadata).fetch(:name), secret.fetch(:metadata).fetch(:namespace))
     true
-  rescue KubeException
+  rescue *SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors
     false
   end
 end
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/api/pod.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/api/pod.rb
index ef9f23ebe1..4502d8b7db 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/api/pod.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/api/pod.rb
@@ -61,10 +61,10 @@ def containers
       # tries to get logs from current or previous pod depending on if it restarted
       def logs(container, end_time)
         fetch_logs(container, end_time, previous: restarted?)
-      rescue KubeException # not found or pod is initializing
+      rescue *SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors # not found or pod is initializing
         begin
           fetch_logs(container, end_time, previous: !restarted?)
-        rescue KubeException
+        rescue *SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors
           nil
         end
       end
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/cluster.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/cluster.rb
index 4bd9353bee..7736337eba 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/cluster.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/cluster.rb
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def namespaces
 
     def namespace_exists?(namespace)
       connection_valid? && namespaces.include?(namespace)
-    rescue KubeException
+    rescue *SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors
       false
     end
 
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def schedulable_nodes
 
     def connection_valid?
       client.api_valid?
-    rescue KubeException, Errno::ECONNREFUSED
+    rescue *SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors
       false
     end
 
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor.rb
index ef6b837dec..9779806db7 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor.rb
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ def pod_statuses(release, release_docs)
     # efficient pod fetching by querying once per cluster instead of once per deploy group
     def fetch_pods(release)
       release.clients.flat_map do |client, query|
-        pods = Vault.with_retries(KubeException, attempts: 3) { client.get_pods(query) }
+        pods = Vault.with_retries(*SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors, attempts: 3) { client.get_pods(query) }
         pods.map! { |p| Kubernetes::Api::Pod.new(p, client: client) }
       end
     end
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/resource.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/resource.rb
index d8d6c625c4..34d22ec1c7 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/resource.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/app/models/kubernetes/resource.rb
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ def update
       def fetch_resource
         reply = request(:get, name, namespace, as: :raw)
         JSON.parse(reply, symbolize_names: true)
-      rescue KubeException => e
+      rescue *SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors => e
         raise e unless e.error_code == 404
         nil
       end
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/lib/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/lib/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin.rb
index 8d4bd35f4c..62d8c3495c 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/lib/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/lib/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin.rb
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@ class Engine < Rails::Engine
       app.config.assets.precompile.append %w[kubernetes/icon.png]
     end
   end
+
+  # http errors and ssl errors are not handled uniformly, but we want to ignore/retry on both
+  # see https://github.com/abonas/kubeclient/issues/240
+  # using a method to avoid loading kubeclient on every boot ~0.1s
+  def self.connection_errors
+    [OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError, KubeException, Errno::ECONNREFUSED].freeze
+  end
 end
 
 Samson::Hooks.view :project_tabs_view, 'samson_kubernetes/project_tab'
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/test/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor_test.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/test/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor_test.rb
index 0b66aebdd3..3ce44ac1a4 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/test/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor_test.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/test/models/kubernetes/deploy_executor_test.rb
@@ -547,5 +547,12 @@ def worker_is_unstable
         executor.send(:fetch_pods, kubernetes_releases(:test_release))
       end
     end
+
+    it "retries on ssl failure" do
+      Kubeclient::Client.any_instance.expects(:get_pods).times(4).raises(OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError.new)
+      assert_raises OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError do
+        executor.send(:fetch_pods, kubernetes_releases(:test_release))
+      end
+    end
   end
 end
diff --git a/plugins/kubernetes/test/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin_test.rb b/plugins/kubernetes/test/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin_test.rb
index c33fc51766..6d884c1db7 100644
--- a/plugins/kubernetes/test/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin_test.rb
+++ b/plugins/kubernetes/test/samson_kubernetes/samson_plugin_test.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 require_relative "../test_helper"
+require "kubeclient"
 
 SingleCov.covered!
 
@@ -50,4 +51,10 @@ def link_parts(resource)
       link_parts(cluster).must_equal ["test", cluster]
     end
   end
+
+  describe ".connection_errors" do
+    it "works" do
+      SamsonKubernetes.connection_errors
+    end
+  end
 end