diff --git a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
index 2b69f6e451..4090de45e4 100644
--- a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
+++ b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@ void RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem::setVoxelVolumeSize(glm::vec3 voxelVolumeSize)
 
 
 void RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem::setVoxelData(QByteArray voxelData) {
+    if (voxelData == _voxelData) {
+        return;
+    }
     PolyVoxEntityItem::setVoxelData(voxelData);
     decompressVolumeData();
 }
@@ -317,6 +320,8 @@ void RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem::decompressVolumeData() {
         }
     }
 
+    _needsModelReload = true;
+
     qDebug() << "--------------- decompress -----------------------------------------------------------";
     qDebug() << "raw-size =" << rawSize << "   compressed-size =" << _voxelData.size();
 }