Ok, found the solution, although the documentation is a little misleading: http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/EJB3Timeouts states that a value of 0 for removalTimeoutSeconds indicates an infinite (a normal / expected result from a 0 value) BUT the documentation here: [url] http://www.jboss.org/file-access/default/members/jbossas/freezone/docs/Cl... mentions: anonymous wrote : removalTimeoutSeconds specifies the max period of time a bean can go unused before the cache should remove it altogether. A maximum time of 0 would be immediately, following all other caching/passivating. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4157947#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...