diff --git a/min/lib/Minify.php b/min/lib/Minify.php
index 4762c6f..5ab651c 100644
--- a/min/lib/Minify.php
+++ b/min/lib/Minify.php
@@ -263,8 +263,10 @@ class Minify {
                 // generate & cache content
                 $content = self::_combineMinify();
                 self::$_cache->store($cacheId, $content);
-                self::$_cache->store($cacheId . '.zd', gzdeflate($content, self::$_options['encodeLevel']));
-                self::$_cache->store($cacheId . '.zg', gzencode($content, self::$_options['encodeLevel']));
+                if (function_exists('gzdeflate')) {
+                    self::$_cache->store($cacheId . '.zd', gzdeflate($content, self::$_options['encodeLevel']));
+                    self::$_cache->store($cacheId . '.zg', gzencode($content, self::$_options['encodeLevel']));
+                }
             }
         } else {
             // no cache
diff --git a/min/lib/Minify/Controller/Base.php b/min/lib/Minify/Controller/Base.php
index 0d40c96..2622d2c 100644
--- a/min/lib/Minify/Controller/Base.php
+++ b/min/lib/Minify/Controller/Base.php
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ abstract class Minify_Controller_Base {
     public function getDefaultMinifyOptions() {
         return array(
             'isPublic' => true
-            ,'encodeOutput' => true
+            ,'encodeOutput' => function_exists('gzdeflate')
             ,'encodeMethod' => null // determine later
             ,'encodeLevel' => 9
             ,'minifierOptions' => array() // no minifier options
diff --git a/min_unit_tests/test_HTTP_Encoder.php b/min_unit_tests/test_HTTP_Encoder.php
index 81a85fa..05a03b7 100644
--- a/min_unit_tests/test_HTTP_Encoder.php
+++ b/min_unit_tests/test_HTTP_Encoder.php
@@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ function test_HTTP_Encoder()
         }
     }
     
+    if (! function_exists('gzdeflate')) {
+        echo "!WARN: HTTP_Encoder : Zlib support is not present in PHP. Encoding cannot be performed/tested.\n";
+        return;
+    }
+    
     // test compression of varied content (HTML,JS, & CSS)
     $variedContent = file_get_contents($thisDir . '/_test_files/html/before.html')
         . file_get_contents($thisDir . '/_test_files/css/subsilver.css')