diff --git a/kafka_consumer/datadog_checks/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.py b/kafka_consumer/datadog_checks/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.py
index 8fe98b5f99567..e5ac6850e8e70 100644
--- a/kafka_consumer/datadog_checks/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.py
+++ b/kafka_consumer/datadog_checks/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 from kazoo.exceptions import NoNodeError
 from six import iteritems, itervalues, string_types, text_type
 
+from datadog_checks.base.utils.containers import hash_mutable
 from datadog_checks.base import AgentCheck, is_affirmative
 
 # Kafka Errors
@@ -493,13 +494,13 @@ def _get_consumer_offsets(self, client, consumer_group, topic_partitions, coord_
     def _should_zk(self, zk_hosts_ports, interval, kafka_collect=False):
         if not kafka_collect or not interval:
             return True
-
+        zk_hosts_ports_hash = hash_mutable(zk_hosts_ports)
         now = time()
-        last = self._zk_last_ts.get(zk_hosts_ports, 0)
+        last = self._zk_last_ts.get(zk_hosts_ports_hash, 0)
 
         should_zk = False
         if now - last >= interval:
-            self._zk_last_ts[zk_hosts_ports] = last
+            self._zk_last_ts[zk_hosts_ports_hash] = last
             should_zk = True
 
         return should_zk
diff --git a/kafka_consumer/tests/test_kafka_consumer_zk.py b/kafka_consumer/tests/test_kafka_consumer_zk.py
index 4a4a13a7d2885..560ec780bfb8f 100644
--- a/kafka_consumer/tests/test_kafka_consumer_zk.py
+++ b/kafka_consumer/tests/test_kafka_consumer_zk.py
@@ -2,12 +2,14 @@
 # All rights reserved
 # Licensed under Simplified BSD License (see LICENSE)
 import copy
+import time
 
 import pytest
 from six import iteritems
 
+from datadog_checks.base.utils.containers import hash_mutable
 from datadog_checks.kafka_consumer import KafkaCheck
-from .common import HOST, PARTITIONS, TOPICS, is_supported
+from .common import HOST, PARTITIONS, TOPICS, ZK_CONNECT_STR, is_supported
 
 pytestmark = pytest.mark.skipif(
     not is_supported('zookeeper'),
@@ -97,3 +99,15 @@ def test_check_nogroups_zk(aggregator, zk_instance):
         else:
             for mname in BROKER_METRICS + CONSUMER_METRICS:
                 aggregator.assert_metric(mname, at_least=1)
+
+
+def test_should_zk():
+    check = KafkaCheck('kafka_consumer', {}, {})
+    # Kafka Consumer Offsets set to True and we have a zk_connect_str that hasn't been run yet
+    assert (check._should_zk([ZK_CONNECT_STR, ZK_CONNECT_STR], 10, True) is True)
+    # Kafka Consumer Offsets is set to False, should immediately ZK
+    assert (check._should_zk(ZK_CONNECT_STR, 10, False) is True)
+    # Last time we checked ZK_CONNECT_STR was less than interval ago, shouldn't ZK
+    zk_connect_hash = hash_mutable(ZK_CONNECT_STR)
+    check._zk_last_ts[zk_connect_hash] = time.time()
+    assert (check._should_zk(ZK_CONNECT_STR, 100, True) is False)