diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/README.rst b/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/README.rst
index 50464d48..a00571c8 100644
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/README.rst
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/README.rst
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 ====
 epel
 ====
+
 This element installs the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL)
 repository GPG key as well as configuration for yum.
 
+Note this element only works with platforms that have EPEL support
+such as CentOS and RHEL
+
 DIB_EPEL_MIRROR:
    :Required: No
    :Default: None
@@ -11,3 +15,9 @@ DIB_EPEL_MIRROR:
                  before running bin/disk-image-create. This URL should point to
                  the directory containing the ``5/6/7`` directories.
    :Example: ``DIB\_EPEL\_MIRROR=http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel``
+
+DIB_EPEL_DISABLED:
+   :Required: No
+   :Default: 0
+   :Description: To disable the EPEL repo (but leave it available if
+                 used with an explicit ``--enablerepo``) set this to 1
diff --git a/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/pre-install.d/05-rpm-epel-release b/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/pre-install.d/05-rpm-epel-release
index 5aa35624..0a4a37da 100755
--- a/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/pre-install.d/05-rpm-epel-release
+++ b/diskimage_builder/elements/epel/pre-install.d/05-rpm-epel-release
@@ -36,6 +36,10 @@ else
     rpm -q epel-release || yum install -y $URL/$PKG_NAME
 fi
 
+if [ ${DIB_EPEL_DISABLED:-0} -ne 0 ]; then
+    yum-config-manager --disable epel
+fi
+
 DIB_EPEL_MIRROR=${DIB_EPEL_MIRROR:-}
 [ -n "$DIB_EPEL_MIRROR" ] || exit 0