diff --git a/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py b/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py
index d6ba364a..c162437a 100644
--- a/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py
+++ b/pywb/warcserver/warcserver.py
@@ -62,9 +62,15 @@ class WarcServer(BaseWarcServer):
             if 'proxy' in custom_config and 'proxy' in config:
                 custom_config['proxy'].update(config['proxy'])
             if 'recorder' in custom_config and 'recorder' in config:
+                if isinstance(custom_config['recorder'], str):
+                    custom_config['recorder'] = {'source_coll': custom_config['recorder']}
+
                 if isinstance(config['recorder'], str):
                     config['recorder'] = {'source_coll': config['recorder']}
 
+                config['recorder'].update(custom_config['recorder'])
+                custom_config['recorder'] = config['recorder']
+
             config.update(custom_config)
 
         super(WarcServer, self).__init__(debug=config.get('debug', False))
diff --git a/tests/config_test_record_dedup.yaml b/tests/config_test_record_dedup.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..af466146
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/config_test_record_dedup.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+debug: true
+
+collections_root: _test_colls
+
+recorder:
+  source_coll: live
+  dedup_policy: skip 
+
+collections:
+  'live': '$live'
+
+
diff --git a/tests/test_record_dedup.py b/tests/test_record_dedup.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..724a32cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_record_dedup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+from .base_config_test import BaseConfigTest, CollsDirMixin, BaseTestClass
+from pywb.manager.manager import main as manager
+from pywb.warcserver.test.testutils import to_path, HttpBinLiveTests, FakeRedisTests
+
+from fakeredis import FakeStrictRedis
+
+from warcio import ArchiveIterator
+
+import os
+import time
+import json
+
+import pytest
+
+
+# ============================================================================
+class TestRecordDedup(HttpBinLiveTests, CollsDirMixin, BaseConfigTest, FakeRedisTests, BaseTestClass):
+    @classmethod
+    def setup_class(cls):
+        super(TestRecordDedup, cls).setup_class('config_test_record_dedup.yaml', custom_config={'recorder': 'live'})
+        cls.redis = FakeStrictRedis.from_url("redis://localhost/0")
+
+    def test_init_coll(self):
+        manager(['init', 'test-dedup'])
+        assert os.path.isdir(os.path.join(self.root_dir, '_test_colls', 'test-dedup', 'archive'))
+
+    def test_record_1(self):
+        res = self.testapp.get('/test-dedup/record/mp_/http://httpbin.org/get?A=B', headers={"Referer": "http://httpbin.org/"})
+        assert '"A": "B"' in res.text
+
+        time.sleep(1.2)
+
+        res = self.testapp.get('/test-dedup/record/mp_/http://httpbin.org/get?A=B', headers={"Referer": "http://httpbin.org/"})
+        assert '"A": "B"' in res.text
+
+    def test_single_redis_entry(self):
+        res = self.redis.zrange("pywb:test-dedup:cdxj", 0, -1)
+        assert len(res) == 1
+
+    def test_single_warc_record(self):
+        dir_name = os.path.join(self.root_dir, '_test_colls', 'test-dedup', 'archive')
+        files = os.listdir(dir_name)
+        assert len(files) == 1
+
+        records = []
+
+        with open(os.path.join(dir_name, files[0]), 'rb') as fh:
+            for record in ArchiveIterator(fh):
+                records.append(record.rec_type)
+
+        # ensure only one response/request pair written
+        assert records == ['response', 'request']