diff --git a/stand/common/console.c b/stand/common/console.c
index 7886f9386c14..ff864276f96c 100644
--- a/stand/common/console.c
+++ b/stand/common/console.c
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ cons_probe(void)
 	TSENTER();
 
 	/* We want a callback to install the new value when this var changes. */
-	env_setenv("twiddle_divisor", EV_VOLATILE, "1", twiddle_set,
+	env_setenv("twiddle_divisor", EV_VOLATILE, "16", twiddle_set,
 	    env_nounset);
 
 	/* Do all console probes */
diff --git a/stand/defaults/loader.conf b/stand/defaults/loader.conf
index 7bca621e6703..6feb909d708a 100644
--- a/stand/defaults/loader.conf
+++ b/stand/defaults/loader.conf
@@ -111,7 +111,8 @@ module_blacklist="drm drm2 radeonkms i915kms amdgpu"	# Loader module blacklist
 #tftp.blksize="1428"		# Set the RFC 2348 TFTP block size.
 				# If the TFTP server does not support RFC 2348,
 				# the block size is set to 512. Valid: (8,9007)
-#twiddle_divisor="1"		# >1 means slow down the progress indicator.
+#twiddle_divisor="16"		# >16 slows down the progress indicator;
+				# <16 speeds up the progress indicator.
 
 ###  Kernel settings  ########################################
 # The following boot_ variables are enabled by setting them to any value.
diff --git a/stand/libsa/twiddle.c b/stand/libsa/twiddle.c
index 7565295fa1a3..60022e4c8167 100644
--- a/stand/libsa/twiddle.c
+++ b/stand/libsa/twiddle.c
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ __FBSDID("$FreeBSD$");
 
 /* Extra functions from NetBSD standalone printf.c */
 
-static u_int globaldiv;
+static u_int globaldiv = 16;
 
 void
 twiddle(u_int callerdiv)
diff --git a/stand/man/loader.8 b/stand/man/loader.8
index e658b41f8338..c606068941a7 100644
--- a/stand/man/loader.8
+++ b/stand/man/loader.8
@@ -644,7 +644,8 @@ Throttles the output of the
 I/O progress indicator displayed while loading the kernel and modules.
 This is useful on slow serial consoles where the time spent waiting for
 these characters to be written can add up to many seconds.
-The default is 1 (full speed); a value of 2 spins half as fast, and so on.
+The default is 16; a value of 32 spins half as fast,
+while a value of 8 spins twice as fast.
 .It Va vm.kmem_size
 Sets the size of kernel memory (bytes).
 This overrides the value determined when the kernel was compiled.
diff --git a/stand/man/loader_simp.8 b/stand/man/loader_simp.8
index 689996f244fd..ba0ba76e8f88 100644
--- a/stand/man/loader_simp.8
+++ b/stand/man/loader_simp.8
@@ -624,7 +624,8 @@ Throttles the output of the
 I/O progress indicator displayed while loading the kernel and modules.
 This is useful on slow serial consoles where the time spent waiting for
 these characters to be written can add up to many seconds.
-The default is 1 (full speed); a value of 2 spins half as fast, and so on.
+The default is 16; a value of 32 spins half as fast,
+while a value of 8 spins twice as fast.
 .It Va vm.kmem_size
 Sets the size of kernel memory (bytes).
 This overrides the value determined when the kernel was compiled.