diff --git a/terraform/environments/scripts/wait-for-ssl.sh b/terraform/environments/scripts/wait-for-ssl.sh
index e130aadf5d8efde49192249d4b826ffd64a61ef6..2a53fa605f62bcdb379948e214c8718565f6cc51 100755
--- a/terraform/environments/scripts/wait-for-ssl.sh
+++ b/terraform/environments/scripts/wait-for-ssl.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ url="$1"
 
 # google has a cdn answering on requests. This cdn takes a while to be fully updated.
 # Therefore, we don't return on first success, but on a number of consecutive successes.
-number_of_consecutive_successful_tries_needed=10
+number_of_consecutive_successful_tries_needed=25
 number_of_consecutive_successful_tries_achieved=0
 
 [ -z "$url" ] && echo "missing url as first param" && exit 1
@@ -17,10 +17,21 @@ echo -n "Checking if SSL certificate for $url is installed: "
 # storage for the return value of the curl command
 retval=0
 
+# early break on success (no need to wait on existing deployments)
+set +e
+curl -sSLIm 10 "$url" > /dev/null 2>& 1 
+retval=$?
+set -e
+if [ $retval -eq 0 ]; then
+  echo "success on first try, not checking further"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 for i in {1..2500}; do
   set +e
-  out=$(curl -sSLI "$url" 2>&1)
+  out=$(curl -sSLIm 10 "$url" 2>& 1)
   retval=$?
   set -e
   # shellcheck disable=SC2181
@@ -31,6 +42,7 @@ for i in {1..2500}; do
       echo "test successful after $i total tries"
       exit 0
     fi
+    sleep 1
   else
     echo -n "."
     number_of_consecutive_successful_tries_achieved=0