diff --git a/roles/netbootxyz/templates/local-vars.ipxe.j2 b/roles/netbootxyz/templates/local-vars.ipxe.j2
index 1df96629..9ed49135 100644
--- a/roles/netbootxyz/templates/local-vars.ipxe.j2
+++ b/roles/netbootxyz/templates/local-vars.ipxe.j2
@@ -15,3 +15,6 @@
 
 ### Sets the local live endpoint for the users local installation
 #set live_endpoint http://my_ip_address:8080
+
+### Sets the default boot timeout
+#set boot_timeout 300000
diff --git a/roles/netbootxyz/templates/menu/boot.cfg.j2 b/roles/netbootxyz/templates/menu/boot.cfg.j2
index 4d883883..59449dd1 100644
--- a/roles/netbootxyz/templates/menu/boot.cfg.j2
+++ b/roles/netbootxyz/templates/menu/boot.cfg.j2
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ set sigs {{ sigs_location }}
 iseq ${platform} efi && set ipxe_disk netboot.xyz-snponly.efi || set ipxe_disk netboot.xyz-undionly.kpxe
 
 # set default boot timeout
-set boot_timeout {{ boot_timeout }}
+isset ${boot_timeout} || set boot_timeout {{ boot_timeout }}
 
 ##################
 # official mirrors