diff --git a/fluent-hc/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/Executor.java b/fluent-hc/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/Executor.java
index 6ce9927d2..e393db2ff 100644
--- a/fluent-hc/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/Executor.java
+++ b/fluent-hc/src/main/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/Executor.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ package org.apache.http.client.fluent;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.security.KeyManagementException;
 import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
 
@@ -220,4 +221,12 @@ public class Executor {
     public static void unregisterScheme(final String name) {
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Closes all idle persistent connections used by the internal pool.
+     * @since 4.4
+     */
+    public static void closeIdleConnections() {
+        CONNMGR.closeIdleConnections(0, TimeUnit.MICROSECONDS);
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/fluent-hc/src/test/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/TestFluent.java b/fluent-hc/src/test/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/TestFluent.java
index cb6f10853..1a1d86df4 100644
--- a/fluent-hc/src/test/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/TestFluent.java
+++ b/fluent-hc/src/test/java/org/apache/http/client/fluent/TestFluent.java
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@ package org.apache.http.client.fluent;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
-import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.HttpEntityEnclosingRequest;
@@ -95,10 +94,8 @@ public class TestFluent extends LocalServerTestBase {
 
     @After @Override
     public void shutDown() throws Exception {
-        if (this.server != null) {
-            this.server.shutdown(100, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
-            this.server = null;
-        }
+        Executor.closeIdleConnections();
+        super.shutDown();
     }
 
     @Test