diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchService.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchService.java
index cddaf027818..52c4859f0fd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchService.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.index.search.slowlog;
 
-import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchParseException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.logging.ESLogger;
@@ -126,15 +125,15 @@ public class ShardSlowLogSearchService extends AbstractIndexShardComponent {
 
         this.reformat = componentSettings.getAsBoolean("reformat", true);
 
-        this.queryWarnThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.query.warn", -1);
-        this.queryInfoThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.query.info", -1);
-        this.queryDebugThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.query.debug", -1);
-        this.queryTraceThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.query.trace", -1);
+        this.queryWarnThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.query.warn", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
+        this.queryInfoThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.query.info", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
+        this.queryDebugThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.query.debug", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
+        this.queryTraceThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.query.trace", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
 
-        this.fetchWarnThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.fetch.warn", -1);
-        this.fetchInfoThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.fetch.info", -1);
-        this.fetchDebugThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.fetch.debug", -1);
-        this.fetchTraceThreshold = parseTimeSetting("threshold.fetch.trace", -1);
+        this.fetchWarnThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.fetch.warn", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
+        this.fetchInfoThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.fetch.info", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
+        this.fetchDebugThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.fetch.debug", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
+        this.fetchTraceThreshold = componentSettings.getAsTime("threshold.fetch.trace", TimeValue.timeValueNanos(-1)).nanos();
 
         this.level = componentSettings.get("level", "TRACE").toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT);
 
@@ -147,15 +146,6 @@ public class ShardSlowLogSearchService extends AbstractIndexShardComponent {
         indexSettingsService.addListener(new ApplySettings());
     }
 
-    private long parseTimeSetting(String name, long defaultNanos) {
-        try {
-            return componentSettings.getAsTime(name, TimeValue.timeValueNanos(defaultNanos)).nanos();
-        } catch (ElasticSearchParseException e) {
-            logger.error("Could not parse setting for [{}], disabling", name);
-            return -1;
-        }
-    }
-
     public void onQueryPhase(SearchContext context, long tookInNanos) {
         if (queryWarnThreshold >= 0 && tookInNanos > queryWarnThreshold) {
             queryLogger.warn("{}", new SlowLogSearchContextPrinter(context, tookInNanos, reformat));
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchServiceTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchServiceTests.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 509da6350b7..00000000000
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/search/slowlog/ShardSlowLogSearchServiceTests.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,70 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to ElasticSearch and Shay Banon under one
- * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
- * distributed with this work for additional information
- * regarding copyright ownership. ElasticSearch licenses this
- * file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
- * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
- * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
- * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
- * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
- * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
- * specific language governing permissions and limitations
- * under the License.
- */
-package org.elasticsearch.index.search.slowlog;
-
-import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.ImmutableSettings;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.Index;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.settings.IndexSettingsService;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.shard.ShardId;
-import org.elasticsearch.test.ElasticsearchTestCase;
-import org.junit.Test;
-
-import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
-
-/**
- *
- */
-public class ShardSlowLogSearchServiceTests extends ElasticsearchTestCase {
-
-    private Index index = new Index("test");
-    private ShardId shardId = new ShardId(index, 0);
-
-
-    @Test
-    public void creatingShardSlowLogSearchServiceWithBrokenSettingsShouldWork() throws Exception {
-        Settings brokenIndexSettings = ImmutableSettings.builder()
-                .put("index.search.slowlog.threshold.query.warn", "s")
-                .build();
-
-        IndexSettingsService indexSettingsService = new IndexSettingsService(shardId.index(), brokenIndexSettings);
-        new ShardSlowLogSearchService(shardId, brokenIndexSettings, indexSettingsService);
-    }
-
-    @Test
-    public void updatingViaListenerWithBrokenSettingsLeavesSettingsAsIs() throws Exception {
-        Settings indexSettings = ImmutableSettings.builder()
-                .put("index.search.slowlog.threshold.query.warn", "1s")
-                .build();
-
-        IndexSettingsService indexSettingsService = new IndexSettingsService(shardId.index(), indexSettings);
-        ShardSlowLogSearchService shardSlowLogSearchService = new ShardSlowLogSearchService(shardId, indexSettings, indexSettingsService);
-
-        Settings updatedSettings = ImmutableSettings.builder()
-                .put("index.search.slowlog.threshold.query.warn", "s")
-                .build();
-        indexSettingsService.refreshSettings(updatedSettings);
-
-        // this is still the time from the indexSettings above, but was not overriden from the settings update
-        // this basically ensures that the parsing exception was caught in the refreshSettings() methods
-        String configuredTime = shardSlowLogSearchService.indexSettings().get("index.search.slowlog.threshold.query.warn");
-        assertThat(configuredTime, is("1s"));
-    }
-
-}