diff --git a/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/RpcClient.java b/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/RpcClient.java
index 686ecd6a5377e..12ba5584119b3 100644
--- a/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/RpcClient.java
+++ b/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/RpcClient.java
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
  */
 public abstract class RpcClient<T> {
     private final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(RpcClient.class);
-    protected static final int MAX_RPC_RETRY = 1;
+    protected static final int MAX_RPC_RETRY = 3;
     protected static final int RESP_BUFFER_SIZE = 8192;
 
     protected HomematicConfig config;
diff --git a/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/XmlRpcClient.java b/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/XmlRpcClient.java
index 5aa5d1cd08793..82ece040f30a8 100644
--- a/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/XmlRpcClient.java
+++ b/bundles/org.openhab.binding.homematic/src/main/java/org/openhab/binding/homematic/internal/communicator/client/XmlRpcClient.java
@@ -16,9 +16,15 @@
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+
+import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 
 import org.eclipse.jetty.client.HttpClient;
+import org.eclipse.jetty.client.api.Request;
 import org.eclipse.jetty.client.api.Response;
 import org.eclipse.jetty.client.util.BytesContentProvider;
 import org.eclipse.jetty.client.util.InputStreamResponseListener;
@@ -31,6 +37,7 @@
 import org.openhab.binding.homematic.internal.communicator.parser.RpcResponseParser;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
 /**
  * Client implementation for sending messages via XML-RPC to the Homematic server.
@@ -68,14 +75,30 @@ protected synchronized Object[] sendMessage(int port, RpcRequest<String> request
         if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
             logger.trace("Client XmlRpcRequest (port {}):\n{}", port, request);
         }
-        return sendMessage(port, request, 0);
+        IOException reason = new IOException();
+        for (int rpcRetryCounter = 1; rpcRetryCounter <= MAX_RPC_RETRY; rpcRetryCounter++) {
+            try {
+                byte[] response = send(port, request);
+                Object[] data = new XmlRpcResponse(new ByteArrayInputStream(response), config.getEncoding())
+                        .getResponseData();
+                return new RpcResponseParser(request).parse(data);
+            } catch (UnknownRpcFailureException | UnknownParameterSetException ex) {
+                throw ex;
+            } catch (SAXException | ParserConfigurationException ex) {
+                throw new IOException(ex);
+            } catch (IOException ex) {
+                reason = ex;
+                if ("init".equals(request.getMethodName())) { // no retries for "init" request
+                    break;
+                }
+                logger.debug("XmlRpcMessage failed, sending message again {}/{}", rpcRetryCounter, MAX_RPC_RETRY);
+            }
+        }
+        throw reason;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Sends the message, retries if there was an error.
-     */
-    private synchronized Object[] sendMessage(int port, RpcRequest<String> request, int rpcRetryCounter)
-            throws IOException {
+    private byte[] send(int port, RpcRequest<String> request) throws IOException {
+        byte[] ret = new byte[0];
         try {
             BytesContentProvider content = new BytesContentProvider(
                     request.createMessage().getBytes(config.getEncoding()));
@@ -83,42 +106,43 @@ private synchronized Object[] sendMessage(int port, RpcRequest<String> request,
             if (port == config.getGroupPort()) {
                 url += "/groups";
             }
-            InputStreamResponseListener respListener = new InputStreamResponseListener();
-            httpClient.POST(url).content(content)
-                    .header(HttpHeader.CONTENT_TYPE, "text/xml;charset=" + config.getEncoding()).send(respListener);
-            Response resp = respListener.get(config.getTimeout(), TimeUnit.SECONDS);
-            ByteArrayOutputStream respData = new ByteArrayOutputStream(RESP_BUFFER_SIZE);
-            int httpStatus = resp.getStatus();
-            if (httpStatus == HttpStatus.OK_200) {
-                byte[] recvBuffer = new byte[RESP_BUFFER_SIZE];
-                InputStream input = respListener.getInputStream();
-                while (true) {
-                    int read = input.read(recvBuffer);
-                    if (read == -1) {
-                        break;
+            Request req = httpClient.POST(url).content(content).timeout(config.getTimeout(), TimeUnit.SECONDS)
+                    .header(HttpHeader.CONTENT_TYPE, "text/xml;charset=" + config.getEncoding());
+            try {
+                ret = req.send().getContent();
+            } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { // Returned buffer too large
+                logger.info("Blocking XmlRpcRequest failed: {}, trying non-blocking request", e.getMessage());
+                InputStreamResponseListener respListener = new InputStreamResponseListener();
+                req.send(respListener);
+                Response resp = respListener.get(config.getTimeout(), TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+                ByteArrayOutputStream respData = new ByteArrayOutputStream(RESP_BUFFER_SIZE);
+
+                int httpStatus = resp.getStatus();
+                if (httpStatus == HttpStatus.OK_200) {
+                    byte[] recvBuffer = new byte[RESP_BUFFER_SIZE];
+                    try (InputStream input = respListener.getInputStream()) {
+                        while (true) {
+                            int read = input.read(recvBuffer);
+                            if (read == -1) {
+                                break;
+                            }
+                            respData.write(recvBuffer, 0, read);
+                        }
+                        ret = respData.toByteArray();
                     }
-                    respData.write(recvBuffer, 0, read);
+                } else {
+                    logger.warn("Non-blocking XmlRpcRequest failed, status code: {} / request: {}", httpStatus,
+                            request);
+                    resp.abort(new IOException());
                 }
-            } else {
-                logger.warn("XmlRpcRequest failure, status code: {} / request was: {}", httpStatus, request);
-                resp.abort(new Exception());
             }
             if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
-                logger.trace("Client XmlRpcResponse: (port {}):\n{}", port, respData.toString(config.getEncoding()));
-            }
-            Object[] data = new XmlRpcResponse(new ByteArrayInputStream(respData.toByteArray()), config.getEncoding())
-                    .getResponseData();
-            return new RpcResponseParser(request).parse(data);
-        } catch (UnknownRpcFailureException | UnknownParameterSetException ex) {
-            throw ex;
-        } catch (Exception ex) {
-            if ("init".equals(request.getMethodName()) || rpcRetryCounter >= MAX_RPC_RETRY) {
-                throw new IOException(ex.getMessage(), ex);
-            } else {
-                rpcRetryCounter++;
-                logger.debug("XmlRpcMessage failure, sending message again {}/{}", rpcRetryCounter, MAX_RPC_RETRY);
-                return sendMessage(port, request, rpcRetryCounter);
+                String result = new String(ret, config.getEncoding());
+                logger.trace("Client XmlRpcResponse (port {}):\n{}", port, result);
             }
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException | ExecutionException | TimeoutException | InterruptedException e) {
+            throw new IOException(e);
         }
+        return ret;
     }
 }