diff --git a/api.py b/api.py
index 7463c6c..db51be0 100755
--- a/api.py
+++ b/api.py
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ class Config(BaseSettings):
     eshosts: str = "http://localhost:9200"
     termfields: str = "article_title,text_content"
     termaggrs: str = "top"
-    esopts: Dict = {}
     title: str = "Interactive API"
     description: str = "A wrapper API for ES indexes."
     debug: bool = False
@@ -72,7 +71,7 @@ class ApiVersion(str, Enum):
     v1 = "1.3.9"
 
 
-ES = EsClientWrapper(config.eshosts_list, **config.esopts)
+ES = EsClientWrapper(config.eshosts_list)
 
 Collection = Enum("Collection", [f"{kv}:{kv}".split(":")[:2] for kv in ES.get_allowed_collections()])  # type: ignore [misc]
 TermField = Enum("TermField", [f"{kv}:{kv}".split(":")[:2] for kv in config.termfields_list])  # type: ignore [misc]
diff --git a/client.py b/client.py
index 7e64d7e..433c90c 100644
--- a/client.py
+++ b/client.py
@@ -18,10 +18,12 @@
 class ClientConfig(BaseSettings):
     maxpage: int = 1000
     elasticsearch_index_name_prefix: str = ""
-    top_term_query_timeout: int = 60
+    esopts: Dict = {"request_timeout": 600, "max_retries": 3}
+    debug: bool = False
 
 
 client_config = ClientConfig()
+logger.info(f"Loaded client config: {client_config}")
 
 
 # used to package paging keys for url transport
@@ -73,6 +75,8 @@ def __init__(self, query_text):
             "original_url",
         ]
         self._expanded_source = self._source + ["text_content", "text_extraction"]
+        if client_config.debug:
+            logger.debug(f"Building es query for {self.query_text}")
 
     def _validate_sort_order(self, sort_order: Optional[str]):
         if sort_order and sort_order not in self.VALID_SORT_ORDERS:
@@ -185,8 +189,8 @@ def article_query(self) -> Dict:
 
 class EsClientWrapper:
     # A wrapper to actually make the calls to elasticsearch
-    def __init__(self, eshosts, **esopts):
-        self.ES = Elasticsearch(eshosts, **esopts)
+    def __init__(self, eshosts):
+        self.ES = Elasticsearch(eshosts, **client_config.esopts)
         self.maxpage = client_config.maxpage
         max_retries = 10
         retries = 0
@@ -387,7 +391,7 @@ def get_terms(
         """
         Get top terms associated with a query
         """
-        res = self.ES.search(index=collection, body=QueryBuilder(q).terms_query(field), request_timeout=client_config.top_term_query_timeout)  # type: ignore [call-arg]
+        res = self.ES.search(index=collection, body=QueryBuilder(q).terms_query(field))  # type: ignore [call-arg]
         if (
             not res["hits"]["hits"]
             or not res["aggregations"]["sample"]["topterms"]["buckets"]
diff --git a/deploy.sh b/deploy.sh
index 96d0ec8..f436e0e 100755
--- a/deploy.sh
+++ b/deploy.sh
@@ -161,7 +161,6 @@ esac
 
 DOCKER_COMPOSE_FILE="docker-compose.yml"
 
-export ESOPTS='{"timeout": 60, "max_retries": 3}' # 'timeout' parameter is deprecated
 export TERMFIELDS="article_title,text_content"
 export TERMAGGRS="top"
 export ELASTICSEARCH_INDEX_NAME_PREFIX="mc_search"
@@ -169,11 +168,13 @@ export API_PORT
 export API_REPLICAS
 export UI_PORT
 export ESHOSTS
+export ESOPTS
 export SENTRY_DSN
 export SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT
 export IMAGE_TAG
 export NEWS_SEARCH_UI_TITLE
 export DEPLOYMENT_TYPE
+export DEBUG
 
 if $USE_LATEST_IMAGE; then
     echo "Building Docker images..."