diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index 7cd47c7..7d9cd77 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
   :codox
   {:output-path "codox"
    :source-uri "http://github.com/ring-clojure/ring-codec/blob/{version}/{filepath}#L{line}"}
-  :aliases {"test-all" ["with-profile" "default:+1.4:+1.5:+1.6:+1.7:+1.8" "test"]}
+  :aliases {"test-all" ["with-profile" "+1.4:+1.5:+1.6:+1.7:+1.8" "test"]}
   :profiles
   {:dev {:dependencies [[criterium "0.4.4"]]}
    :1.4 {:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.4.0"]]}
diff --git a/src/ring/util/codec.clj b/src/ring/util/codec.clj
index de57108..340a9b4 100644
--- a/src/ring/util/codec.clj
+++ b/src/ring/util/codec.clj
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
   (:import java.io.File
            java.util.Map
            [java.net URLEncoder URLDecoder]
-           org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64))
+           org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64
+           org.apache.commons.codec.net.URLCodec))
 
 (defn assoc-conj
   "Associate a key with a value in a map. If the key already exists in the map,
@@ -57,16 +58,15 @@
   "Returns the url-encoded version of the given string, using either a specified
   encoding or UTF-8 by default."
   [unencoded & [encoding]]
-  (str/replace
-    unencoded
-    #"[^A-Za-z0-9_~.+-]+"
-    #(double-escape (percent-encode % encoding))))
+  (let [codec (URLCodec. (or encoding "UTF-8"))]
+    (.encode codec unencoded)))
 
 (defn ^String url-decode
   "Returns the url-decoded version of the given string, using either a specified
   encoding or UTF-8 by default. If the encoding is invalid, nil is returned."
   [encoded & [encoding]]
-  (percent-decode encoded encoding))
+  (let [codec (URLCodec. (or encoding "UTF-8"))]
+    (.decode codec encoded)))
 
 (defn base64-encode
   "Encode an array of bytes into a base64 encoded string."
@@ -112,7 +112,8 @@
   or UTF-8 by default."
   [^String encoded & [encoding]]
   (try
-    (URLDecoder/decode encoded (or encoding "UTF-8"))
+    (let [codec (URLCodec. (or encoding "UTF-8"))]
+      (.decode codec encoded))
     (catch Exception _ nil)))
 
 (defn form-decode
diff --git a/test/ring/util/test/codec.clj b/test/ring/util/test/codec.clj
index 36e51f6..fb76087 100644
--- a/test/ring/util/test/codec.clj
+++ b/test/ring/util/test/codec.clj
@@ -1,30 +1,19 @@
 (ns ring.util.test.codec
-  (:use clojure.test
-        ring.util.codec)
-  (:import java.util.Arrays))
-
-(deftest test-percent-encode
-  (is (= (percent-encode " ") "%20"))
-  (is (= (percent-encode "+") "%2B"))
-  (is (= (percent-encode "foo") "%66%6F%6F")))
-
-(deftest test-percent-decode
-  (is (= (percent-decode "%s/") "%s/"))
-  (is (= (percent-decode "%20") " "))
-  (is (= (percent-decode "foo%20bar") "foo bar"))
-  (is (= (percent-decode "foo%FE%FF%00%2Fbar" "UTF-16") "foo/bar"))
-  (is (= (percent-decode "%24") "$")))
+  (:require [clojure.test :refer :all]
+            [ring.util.codec :refer :all])
+  (:import java.util.Arrays
+           org.apache.commons.codec.DecoderException))
 
 (deftest test-url-encode
   (is (= (url-encode "foo/bar") "foo%2Fbar"))
-  (is (= (url-encode "foo/bar" "UTF-16") "foo%FE%FF%00%2Fbar"))
-  (is (= (url-encode "foo+bar") "foo+bar"))
-  (is (= (url-encode "foo bar") "foo%20bar")))
+  (is (= (url-encode "foo/bar" "UTF-16") "%FE%FF%00f%00o%00o%00%2F%00b%00a%00r"))
+  (is (= (url-encode "foo+bar") "foo%2Bbar"))
+  (is (= (url-encode "foo bar") "foo+bar")))
 
 (deftest test-url-decode
   (is (= (url-decode "foo%2Fbar") "foo/bar" ))
-  (is (= (url-decode "foo%FE%FF%00%2Fbar" "UTF-16") "foo/bar"))
-  (is (= (url-decode "%") "%")))
+  (is (= (url-decode "%FE%FF%00f%00o%00o%00%2F%00b%00a%00r" "UTF-16") "foo/bar"))
+  (is (thrown? DecoderException (url-decode "%"))))
 
 (deftest test-base64-encoding
   (let [str-bytes (.getBytes "foo?/+" "UTF-8")]
@@ -58,5 +47,5 @@
     "foo+bar" "foo bar"
     "a=b+c"   {"a" "b c"}
     "a=b%2Fc" {"a" "b/c"})
-  (is (= (form-decode "a=foo%FE%FF%00%2Fbar" "UTF-16")
+  (is (= (form-decode "%FE%FF%00a=%FE%FF%00f%00o%00o%00%2F%00b%00a%00r" "UTF-16")
          {"a" "foo/bar"})))