diff --git a/lib/server.js b/lib/server.js
index e2f379f344..12c4ad1404 100644
--- a/lib/server.js
+++ b/lib/server.js
@@ -52,14 +52,6 @@ function Server (opts) {
 
   var self = this;
 
-  // turn off per message deflate for node 0.8
-  // due to it not supporting DeflateRaw#close
-  // and thus not working with ws 0.8.x
-  if (/^v0\.8\./.test(process.version)) {
-    debug('perMessageDeflate not supported by node 0.8');
-    this.perMessageDeflate = false;
-  }
-
   // initialize compression options
   ['perMessageDeflate', 'httpCompression'].forEach(function (type) {
     var compression = self[type];
diff --git a/test/server.js b/test/server.js
index eb56164b9a..fd0abdded4 100644
--- a/test/server.js
+++ b/test/server.js
@@ -16,8 +16,6 @@ var expect = require('expect.js');
 var request = require('superagent');
 var cookieMod = require('cookie');
 
-// are we running on node 0.8?
-var NODE_0_8 = /^v0\.8\./.test(process.version);
 // are we running on node < 4.4.3 ?
 var NODE_LT_443 = (function () {
   var parts = process.versions.node.split('.');
@@ -2409,8 +2407,6 @@ describe('server', function () {
   });
 
   describe('permessage-deflate', function () {
-    if (NODE_0_8) return;
-
     it('should set threshold', function (done) {
       var engine = listen({ transports: ['websocket'], perMessageDeflate: { threshold: 0 } }, function (port) {
         engine.on('connection', function (conn) {