diff --git a/nodes/core/core/75-exec.html b/nodes/core/core/75-exec.html
index 567a34c19..8d1279cb1 100644
--- a/nodes/core/core/75-exec.html
+++ b/nodes/core/core/75-exec.html
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
     <p>Optionally can use spawn() instead, which returns output from stdout and stderr as the command runs (ie one line at a time). On completion it then returns a return code (on the 3rd output).</p>
     <p>Spawn only expect one command word, with all extra parameters to be comma separated and passed as the append.</p>
     <p>The optional append gets added to the command after the <b>msg.payload</b> - so you can do things like pipe the result to another command.</p>
+    <p>If stdout is binary a <i>buffer</i> is returned - otherwise returns a <i>string</i>.</p>
 </script>
 
 <script type="text/javascript">
diff --git a/nodes/core/core/75-exec.js b/nodes/core/core/75-exec.js
index ba8849973..f34f3bf77 100644
--- a/nodes/core/core/75-exec.js
+++ b/nodes/core/core/75-exec.js
@@ -66,8 +66,8 @@ module.exports = function(RED) {
             else {
                 var cl = node.cmd+" "+msg.payload+" "+node.append;
                 if (RED.settings.verbose) { node.log(cl); }
-                var child = exec(cl, {encoding: 'binary'}, function (error, stdout, stderr) {
-                    msg.payload = new Buffer(stdout);
+                var child = exec(cl, {encoding: 'binary', maxBuffer:10000000}, function (error, stdout, stderr) {
+                    msg.payload = new Buffer(stdout,"binary");
                     if (isUtf8(msg.payload)) { msg.payload = msg.payload.toString(); }
                     var msg2 = {payload:stderr};
                     var msg3 = null;