diff --git a/spec/app/config-panel-spec.coffee b/spec/app/config-panel-spec.coffee
index a1f9dabed..be8717246 100644
--- a/spec/app/config-panel-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/app/config-panel-spec.coffee
@@ -42,6 +42,19 @@ describe "ConfigPanel", ->
     panel.stringInput.val('moo').change()
     expect(config.get('foo.string')).toBe 'moo'
 
+    panel.intInput.val('abcd').change()
+    expect(config.get('foo.int')).toBe 'abcd'
+
+    panel.floatInput.val('defg').change()
+    expect(config.get('foo.float')).toBe 'defg'
+
+    panel.intInput.val('').change()
+    expect(config.get('foo.int')).toBe undefined
+    panel.floatInput.val('').change()
+    expect(config.get('foo.float')).toBe undefined
+    panel.stringInput.val('').change()
+    expect(config.get('foo.string')).toBe undefined
+
   it "automatically binds named editors to their corresponding config keys", ->
     class TestPanel extends ConfigPanel
       @content: ->
@@ -73,10 +86,17 @@ describe "ConfigPanel", ->
     expect(config.get('foo.float')).toBe 3.3
     expect(config.get('foo.string')).toBe 'All limitations are self imposed.'
 
+
     panel.intEditor.setText('not an int')
     panel.floatEditor.setText('not a float')
+    window.advanceClock(10000) # wait for contents-modified to be triggered
+    expect(config.get('foo.int')).toBe 'not an int'
+    expect(config.get('foo.float')).toBe 'not a float'
+
+    panel.intEditor.setText('')
+    panel.floatEditor.setText('')
     panel.stringEditor.setText('')
     window.advanceClock(10000) # wait for contents-modified to be triggered
-    expect(config.get('foo.int')).toBe 0
-    expect(config.get('foo.float')).toBe 0
+    expect(config.get('foo.int')).toBe undefined
+    expect(config.get('foo.float')).toBe undefined
     expect(config.get('foo.string')).toBe undefined
diff --git a/src/app/config-panel.coffee b/src/app/config-panel.coffee
index 16aa17ab9..178248a90 100644
--- a/src/app/config-panel.coffee
+++ b/src/app/config-panel.coffee
@@ -22,17 +22,20 @@ class ConfigPanel extends View
             input.attr('checked', value)
           else
             input.val(value) if value
-        input.on 'change', ->
+        input.on 'change', =>
           value = input.val()
-          config.set name, switch type
-            when 'int'
-              parseInt(value)
-            when 'float'
-              parseFloat(value)
-            when 'checkbox'
-              !!input.attr('checked')
-            else
-              value
+          if type == 'checkbox'
+            value = !!input.attr('checked')
+          else
+            value = @parseValue(type, value)
+          config.set(name, value)
+
+  parseValue: (type, value) ->
+    switch type
+      when 'int' then value = parseInt(value) or value
+      when 'float' then value = parseFloat(value) or value
+    value = undefined if value == ''
+    value
 
   bindEditors: ->
     for editor in @find('.editor[id]').views()
@@ -45,9 +48,5 @@ class ConfigPanel extends View
           value ?= ""
           editor.setText(value.toString())
 
-        editor.getBuffer().on 'contents-modified', ->
-          value = editor.getText()
-          if type == 'int' then value = parseInt(value) or 0
-          if type == 'float' then value = parseFloat(value) or 0
-          if value == "" then value = undefined
-          config.set name, value
+        editor.getBuffer().on 'contents-modified', =>
+          config.set(name, @parseValue(type, editor.getText()))