diff --git a/tsdb/engine/tsm1/cache.go b/tsdb/engine/tsm1/cache.go
index 26ec5aab55..04a7a69d1f 100644
--- a/tsdb/engine/tsm1/cache.go
+++ b/tsdb/engine/tsm1/cache.go
@@ -601,6 +601,8 @@ func NewCacheLoader(files []string) *CacheLoader {
 // file is truncated up to and including the last valid byte, and processing
 // continues with the next segment file.
 func (cl *CacheLoader) Load(cache *Cache) error {
+
+	var r *WALSegmentReader
 	for _, fn := range cl.files {
 		if err := func() error {
 			f, err := os.OpenFile(fn, os.O_CREATE|os.O_RDWR, 0666)
@@ -621,8 +623,12 @@ func (cl *CacheLoader) Load(cache *Cache) error {
 				return nil
 			}
 
-			r := NewWALSegmentReader(f)
-			defer r.Close()
+			if r == nil {
+				r = NewWALSegmentReader(f)
+				defer r.Close()
+			} else {
+				r.Reset(f)
+			}
 
 			for r.Next() {
 				entry, err := r.Read()
@@ -647,7 +653,7 @@ func (cl *CacheLoader) Load(cache *Cache) error {
 				}
 			}
 
-			return nil
+			return r.Close()
 		}(); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
diff --git a/tsdb/engine/tsm1/wal.go b/tsdb/engine/tsm1/wal.go
index a94eb48d33..2ce2417dc8 100644
--- a/tsdb/engine/tsm1/wal.go
+++ b/tsdb/engine/tsm1/wal.go
@@ -1081,7 +1081,7 @@ func (w *WALSegmentWriter) close() error {
 // WALSegmentReader reads WAL segments.
 type WALSegmentReader struct {
 	rc    io.ReadCloser
-	r     io.Reader
+	r     *bufio.Reader
 	entry WALEntry
 	n     int64
 	err   error
@@ -1091,10 +1091,18 @@ type WALSegmentReader struct {
 func NewWALSegmentReader(r io.ReadCloser) *WALSegmentReader {
 	return &WALSegmentReader{
 		rc: r,
-		r:  bufio.NewReaderSize(r, 1024*1024),
+		r:  bufio.NewReader(r),
 	}
 }
 
+func (r *WALSegmentReader) Reset(rc io.ReadCloser) {
+	r.rc = rc
+	r.r.Reset(rc)
+	r.entry = nil
+	r.n = 0
+	r.err = nil
+}
+
 // Next indicates if there is a value to read.
 func (r *WALSegmentReader) Next() bool {
 	var nReadOK int
@@ -1187,6 +1195,9 @@ func (r *WALSegmentReader) Error() error {
 
 // Close closes the underlying io.Reader.
 func (r *WALSegmentReader) Close() error {
+	if r.rc == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
 	return r.rc.Close()
 }