diff --git a/classes/Queue_item.php b/classes/Queue_item.php
index f83c2cef18..c7e17be6e8 100644
--- a/classes/Queue_item.php
+++ b/classes/Queue_item.php
@@ -64,4 +64,17 @@ class Queue_item extends Memcached_DataObject
         $qi = null;
         return null;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Release a claimed item.
+     */
+    function releaseCLaim()
+    {
+        // DB_DataObject doesn't let us save nulls right now
+        $sql = sprintf("UPDATE queue_item SET claimed=NULL WHERE id=%d", $this->id);
+        $this->query($sql);
+
+        $this->claimed = null;
+        $this->encache();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/lib/dbqueuemanager.php b/lib/dbqueuemanager.php
index 3032e4ec7a..3dda9fd1ac 100644
--- a/lib/dbqueuemanager.php
+++ b/lib/dbqueuemanager.php
@@ -135,9 +135,7 @@ class DBQueueManager extends QueueManager
         if (empty($qi->claimed)) {
             $this->_log(LOG_WARNING, "[$queue:item $qi->id] Ignoring failure for unclaimed queue item");
         } else {
-            $orig = clone($qi);
-            $qi->claimed = null;
-            $qi->update($orig);
+            $qi->releaseClaim();
         }
 
         $this->stats('error', $queue);