diff --git a/montecristo/src/main/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/CassandraYaml.kt b/montecristo/src/main/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/CassandraYaml.kt
index 7ca47f1..07ba580 100644
--- a/montecristo/src/main/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/CassandraYaml.kt
+++ b/montecristo/src/main/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/CassandraYaml.kt
@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@ data class CassandraYaml(val data : JsonNode)  : YamlConfig(data) {
     val partitioner get() = get("partitioner")
     val memtableAllocationType get() = get("memtable_allocation_type")
     val authorizer get() = get("authorizer")
-    private val rowCacheSizeInMB get() = (get("row_cache_size","0")).toInt()
+    val rowCacheSizeInMB get() = (
+            get("row_cache_size", "0").replace("\\D+".toRegex(), "")
+            ).toInt()
      fun isRowCacheEnabled(): Boolean {
         return (rowCacheSizeInMB.toString().toInt() > 0)
     }
diff --git a/montecristo/src/test/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/YamlConfigTest.kt b/montecristo/src/test/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/YamlConfigTest.kt
index 73d6e3a..dbea38f 100644
--- a/montecristo/src/test/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/YamlConfigTest.kt
+++ b/montecristo/src/test/kotlin/com/datastax/montecristo/model/application/YamlConfigTest.kt
@@ -16,10 +16,13 @@
 
 package com.datastax.montecristo.model.application
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.JsonNodeFactory
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.yaml.YAMLFactory
 import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions
+import org.junit.Assert.assertTrue
+import org.junit.Assert.assertFalse
 import org.junit.Before
 import org.junit.Test
 import java.io.File
@@ -28,16 +31,19 @@ internal class YamlConfigTest {
     lateinit var yamlNoFile: YamlConfig
     lateinit var yamlWithFile: YamlConfig
 
-    @Before
-    fun setUp() {
-        yamlNoFile = YamlConfig(JsonNodeFactory.instance.objectNode())
-
-        val yamlFile = File(this.javaClass.getResource("/helpers/generic.yaml").path)
+    private fun openYamlFile(filePath: String): JsonNode {
+        val yamlFile = File(this.javaClass.getResource(filePath).path)
         val yamlReader = ObjectMapper(YAMLFactory())
         val obj = yamlReader.readValue(yamlFile.readText(), Any::class.java)
         val jsonWriter = ObjectMapper()
         val json = jsonWriter.readTree(jsonWriter.writeValueAsString(obj))
-        yamlWithFile = YamlConfig(json)
+        return json
+    }
+
+    @Before
+    fun setUp() {
+        yamlNoFile = YamlConfig(JsonNodeFactory.instance.objectNode())
+        yamlWithFile = YamlConfig(openYamlFile("/helpers/generic.yaml"))
     }
 
     @Test
@@ -45,4 +51,16 @@ internal class YamlConfigTest {
         Assertions.assertThat(yamlNoFile.isEmpty())
         Assertions.assertThat(!yamlWithFile.isEmpty())
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+
+    @Test
+    fun testParseRowCache() {
+        var yamlFile = openYamlFile("/helpers/rowCacheEnabled.yaml")
+        var cassandraYaml = CassandraYaml(yamlFile)
+        assertTrue(cassandraYaml.isRowCacheEnabled())
+
+        yamlFile = openYamlFile("/helpers/rowCacheDisabled.yaml")
+        cassandraYaml = CassandraYaml(yamlFile)
+        // this should fail but the Assertions are somehow not effective
+        assertFalse(cassandraYaml.isRowCacheEnabled())
+    }
+}
diff --git a/montecristo/src/test/resources/helpers/rowCacheDisabled.yaml b/montecristo/src/test/resources/helpers/rowCacheDisabled.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e0c802
--- /dev/null
+++ b/montecristo/src/test/resources/helpers/rowCacheDisabled.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+row_cache_size: 0MiB
+key: "value"
diff --git a/montecristo/src/test/resources/helpers/rowCacheEnabled.yaml b/montecristo/src/test/resources/helpers/rowCacheEnabled.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0511399
--- /dev/null
+++ b/montecristo/src/test/resources/helpers/rowCacheEnabled.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+row_cache_size: 1
+key: "value"