diff --git a/src/riak_kv_wterl_backend.erl b/src/riak_kv_wterl_backend.erl
index 6322882..8477a79 100644
--- a/src/riak_kv_wterl_backend.erl
+++ b/src/riak_kv_wterl_backend.erl
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ start(Partition, Config) ->
                         [{internal_page_max, "128K"},
                          {leaf_page_max, "128K"},
                          {lsm_chunk_size, "25MB"},
+                         {prefix_compression, false},
                          {lsm_bloom_newest, true},
                          {lsm_bloom_oldest, true} ,
                          {lsm_bloom_bit_count, 128},
diff --git a/src/wterl.erl b/src/wterl.erl
index 10e51dd..b7c3900 100644
--- a/src/wterl.erl
+++ b/src/wterl.erl
@@ -477,6 +477,7 @@ config_to_bin([{Key, Value} | Rest], Acc) ->
      {lsm_bloom_newest, bool},
      {lsm_bloom_oldest, bool},
      {lsm_chunk_size, string},
+     {prefix_compression, bool},
      {lsm_merge_threads, integer},
      {multiprocess, bool},
      {name, string},