diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/util.go b/pkg/kubelet/util.go
index 767108c9bf5..079acc04658 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/util.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/util.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/client"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/client/record"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/health"
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/tools"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 	"github.com/coreos/go-etcd/etcd"
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ func InitHealthChecking(k *Kubelet) {
 }
 
 // TODO: move this into a pkg/tools/etcd_tools
-func EtcdClientOrDie(etcdServerList util.StringList, etcdConfigFile string) *etcd.Client {
+func EtcdClientOrDie(etcdServerList util.StringList, etcdConfigFile string) tools.EtcdClient {
 	if len(etcdServerList) > 0 {
 		return etcd.NewClient(etcdServerList)
 	} else if etcdConfigFile != "" {
diff --git a/pkg/standalone/standalone.go b/pkg/standalone/standalone.go
index 3894c3f7b46..73949fd3caa 100644
--- a/pkg/standalone/standalone.go
+++ b/pkg/standalone/standalone.go
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net"
 	"net/http"
-	"reflect"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
@@ -232,11 +231,11 @@ func makePodSourceConfig(kc *KubeletConfig) *config.PodConfig {
 		glog.Infof("Adding manifest url: %v", kc.ManifestURL)
 		config.NewSourceURL(kc.ManifestURL, kc.HttpCheckFrequency, cfg.Channel(kubelet.HTTPSource))
 	}
-	if kc.EtcdClient != nil && !reflect.ValueOf(kc.EtcdClient).IsNil() {
+	if kc.EtcdClient != nil {
 		glog.Infof("Watching for etcd configs at %v", kc.EtcdClient.GetCluster())
 		config.NewSourceEtcd(config.EtcdKeyForHost(kc.Hostname), kc.EtcdClient, cfg.Channel(kubelet.EtcdSource))
 	}
-	if kc.KubeClient != nil && !reflect.ValueOf(kc.KubeClient).IsNil() {
+	if kc.KubeClient != nil {
 		glog.Infof("Watching apiserver")
 		config.NewSourceApiserver(kc.KubeClient, kc.Hostname, cfg.Channel(kubelet.ApiserverSource))
 	}