diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 5feb14d7554..c0c6d5733e2 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
+    MAPREDUCE-6105. Inconsistent configuration in property
+    mapreduce.reduce.shuffle.merge.percent. (Ray Chiang via harsh)
+
     MAPREDUCE-4414. Add main methods to JobConf and YarnConfiguration,
     for debug purposes. (Plamen Jeliazkov via harsh)
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
index d445bb1bf71..4cff68fa89f 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/MRJobConfig.java
@@ -300,6 +300,7 @@ public interface MRJobConfig {
     = "mapreduce.reduce.shuffle.memory.limit.percent";
 
   public static final String SHUFFLE_MERGE_PERCENT = "mapreduce.reduce.shuffle.merge.percent";
+  public static final float DEFAULT_SHUFFLE_MERGE_PERCENT = 0.66f;
 
   public static final String REDUCE_FAILURES_MAXPERCENT = "mapreduce.reduce.failures.maxpercent";
 
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/task/reduce/MergeManagerImpl.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/task/reduce/MergeManagerImpl.java
index a4b1aa82e8f..8bf17ef75f8 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/task/reduce/MergeManagerImpl.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapreduce/task/reduce/MergeManagerImpl.java
@@ -191,8 +191,9 @@ public class MergeManagerImpl<K, V> implements MergeManager<K, V> {
     this.memToMemMergeOutputsThreshold = 
             jobConf.getInt(MRJobConfig.REDUCE_MEMTOMEM_THRESHOLD, ioSortFactor);
     this.mergeThreshold = (long)(this.memoryLimit * 
-                          jobConf.getFloat(MRJobConfig.SHUFFLE_MERGE_PERCENT, 
-                                           0.90f));
+                          jobConf.getFloat(
+                            MRJobConfig.SHUFFLE_MERGE_PERCENT,
+                            MRJobConfig.DEFAULT_SHUFFLE_MERGE_PERCENT));
     LOG.info("MergerManager: memoryLimit=" + memoryLimit + ", " +
              "maxSingleShuffleLimit=" + maxSingleShuffleLimit + ", " +
              "mergeThreshold=" + mergeThreshold + ", " +