diff --git a/application/config/database.php b/application/config/database.php
index e77bf97..4bb7a57 100644
--- a/application/config/database.php
+++ b/application/config/database.php
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@
 |	['char_set'] The character set used in communicating with the database
 |	['dbcollat'] The character collation used in communicating with the database
 |				 NOTE: For MySQL and MySQLi databases, this setting is only used
-| 				 as a backup if your server is running PHP < 5.2.3 or MySQL < 5.0.7.
+| 				 as a backup if your server is running PHP < 5.2.3 or MySQL < 5.0.7
+|				 (and in table creation queries made with DB Forge).
 | 				 There is an incompatibility in PHP with mysql_real_escape_string() which
 | 				 can make your site vulnerable to SQL injection if you are using a
 | 				 multi-byte character set and are running versions lower than these.
diff --git a/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php
index dec1586..73a8b68 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/mysql/mysql_driver.php
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@
 	var $_count_string = 'SELECT COUNT(*) AS ';
 	var $_random_keyword = ' RAND()'; // database specific random keyword
 
+	// whether SET NAMES must be used to set the character set
+	var $use_set_names;
+	
 	/**
 	 * Non-persistent database connection
 	 *
@@ -132,15 +135,13 @@
 	 */
 	function db_set_charset($charset, $collation)
 	{
-		static $use_set_names;
-
-		if ( ! isset($use_set_names))
+		if ( ! isset($this->use_set_names))
 		{
 			// mysql_set_charset() requires PHP >= 5.2.3 and MySQL >= 5.0.7, use SET NAMES as fallback
-			$use_set_names = (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.2.3', '>=') && version_compare(mysql_get_server_info(), '5.0.7', '>=')) ? FALSE : TRUE;
+			$this->use_set_names = (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.2.3', '>=') && version_compare(mysql_get_server_info(), '5.0.7', '>=')) ? FALSE : TRUE;
 		}
 
-		if ($use_set_names)
+		if ($this->use_set_names === TRUE)
 		{
 			return @mysql_query("SET NAMES '".$this->escape_str($charset)."' COLLATE '".$this->escape_str($collation)."'", $this->conn_id);
 		}
diff --git a/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php b/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php
index 74f55c4..4575824 100644
--- a/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php
+++ b/system/database/drivers/mysqli/mysqli_driver.php
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@
 	 */
 	var $delete_hack = TRUE;
 
+	// whether SET NAMES must be used to set the character set
+	var $use_set_names;
+	
 	// --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 	/**
@@ -132,15 +135,13 @@
 	 */
 	function _db_set_charset($charset, $collation)
 	{
-		static $use_set_names;
-
-		if ( ! isset($use_set_names))
+		if ( ! isset($this->use_set_names))
 		{
 			// mysqli_set_charset() requires MySQL >= 5.0.7, use SET NAMES as fallback
-			$use_set_names = (version_compare(mysqli_get_server_info($this->conn_id), '5.0.7', '>=')) ? FALSE : TRUE;
+			$this->use_set_names = (version_compare(mysqli_get_server_info($this->conn_id), '5.0.7', '>=')) ? FALSE : TRUE;
 		}
 
-		if ($use_set_names)
+		if ($this->use_set_names === TRUE)
 		{
 			return @mysqli_query($this->conn_id, "SET NAMES '".$this->escape_str($charset)."' COLLATE '".$this->escape_str($collation)."'");
 		}
diff --git a/user_guide/database/configuration.html b/user_guide/database/configuration.html
index b347054..4397177 100644
--- a/user_guide/database/configuration.html
+++ b/user_guide/database/configuration.html
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@
 <li><strong>cache_on</strong> - TRUE/FALSE (boolean) - Whether database query caching is enabled, see also <a href="caching.html">Database Caching Class</a>.</li>
 <li><strong>cachedir</strong> - The absolute server path to your database query cache directory.</li>
 <li><strong>char_set</strong> - The character set used in communicating with the database.</li>
-<li><strong>dbcollat</strong> - The character collation used in communicating with the database. <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> For MySQL and MySQLi databases, this setting is only used as a backup if your server is running PHP &lt; 5.2.3 or MySQL &lt; 5.0.7. There is an incompatibility in PHP with mysql_real_escape_string() which can make your site vulnerable to SQL injection if you are using a multi-byte character set and are running versions lower than these. Sites using Latin-1 or UTF-8 database character set and collation are unaffected.</p></li>
+<li><strong>dbcollat</strong> - The character collation used in communicating with the database. <p class="important"><strong>Note:</strong> For MySQL and MySQLi databases, this setting is only used as a backup if your server is running PHP &lt; 5.2.3 or MySQL &lt; 5.0.7 (and in table creation queries made with DB Forge). There is an incompatibility in PHP with mysql_real_escape_string() which can make your site vulnerable to SQL injection if you are using a multi-byte character set and are running versions lower than these. Sites using Latin-1 or UTF-8 database character set and collation are unaffected.</p></li>
 <li><strong>swap_pre</strong> - A default table prefix that should be swapped with <var>dbprefix</var>. This is useful for distributed applications where you might run manually written queries, and need the prefix to still be customizable by the end user.</li>
 <li><strong>autoinit</strong> - Whether or not to automatically connect to the database when the library loads. If set to false, the connection will take place prior to executing the first query.</li>
 <li><strong>stricton</strong> - TRUE/FALSE (boolean) - Whether to force "Strict Mode" connections, good for ensuring strict SQL while developing an application.</li>