diff --git a/cmd/mqtt2prometheus.go b/cmd/mqtt2prometheus.go
index 920a821..9ca174f 100644
--- a/cmd/mqtt2prometheus.go
+++ b/cmd/mqtt2prometheus.go
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ func main() {
 	}
 	mqttClientOptions := mqtt.NewClientOptions()
 	mqttClientOptions.AddBroker(cfg.MQTT.Server).SetCleanSession(true)
+	mqttClientOptions.SetAutoReconnect(true)
 	mqttClientOptions.SetUsername(cfg.MQTT.User)
 	mqttClientOptions.SetPassword(cfg.MQTT.Password)
 
@@ -96,6 +97,8 @@ func main() {
 		logger.Fatal("could not setup a metric extractor", zap.Error(err))
 	}
 	ingest := metrics.NewIngest(collector, extractor, cfg.MQTT.DeviceIDRegex)
+	mqttClientOptions.SetOnConnectHandler(ingest.OnConnectHandler)
+	mqttClientOptions.SetConnectionLostHandler(ingest.ConnectionLostHandler)
 	errorChan := make(chan error, 1)
 
 	for {
@@ -113,7 +116,7 @@ func main() {
 		time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
 	}
 
-	prometheus.MustRegister(ingest.MessageMetric())
+	prometheus.MustRegister(ingest.Collector())
 	prometheus.MustRegister(collector)
 	http.Handle("/metrics", promhttp.Handler())
 	go func() {
diff --git a/pkg/metrics/instrumentation.go b/pkg/metrics/instrumentation.go
index 0082bdc..5dd75eb 100644
--- a/pkg/metrics/instrumentation.go
+++ b/pkg/metrics/instrumentation.go
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 package metrics
 
-import "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
+import (
+	mqtt "github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.golang"
+	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
+)
 
 const (
 	storeError = "storeError"
@@ -14,14 +17,30 @@ var defaultInstrumentation = instrumentation{
 			Help: "received messages per topic and status",
 		}, []string{"status", "topic"},
 	),
+	connectedMetric: prometheus.NewGauge(
+		prometheus.GaugeOpts{
+			Name: "mqtt2prometheus_connected",
+			Help: "is the mqtt2prometheus exporter connected to the broker",
+		},
+	),
 }
 
 type instrumentation struct {
-	messageMetric *prometheus.CounterVec
+	messageMetric   *prometheus.CounterVec
+	connectedMetric prometheus.Gauge
 }
 
-func (i *instrumentation) MessageMetric() *prometheus.CounterVec {
-	return i.messageMetric
+func (i *instrumentation) Collector() prometheus.Collector {
+	return i
+}
+
+func (i *instrumentation) Describe(desc chan<- *prometheus.Desc) {
+	prometheus.DescribeByCollect(i, desc)
+}
+
+func (i *instrumentation) Collect(metrics chan<- prometheus.Metric) {
+	i.connectedMetric.Collect(metrics)
+	i.messageMetric.Collect(metrics)
 }
 
 func (i *instrumentation) CountSuccess(topic string) {
@@ -31,3 +50,11 @@ func (i *instrumentation) CountSuccess(topic string) {
 func (i *instrumentation) CountStoreError(topic string) {
 	i.messageMetric.WithLabelValues(storeError, topic).Inc()
 }
+
+func (i *instrumentation) ConnectionLostHandler(client mqtt.Client, err error) {
+	i.connectedMetric.Set(0)
+}
+
+func (i *instrumentation) OnConnectHandler(client mqtt.Client) {
+	i.connectedMetric.Set(1)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/mqttclient/mqttClient.go b/pkg/mqttclient/mqttClient.go
index 4ac181c..2e85a8d 100644
--- a/pkg/mqttclient/mqttClient.go
+++ b/pkg/mqttclient/mqttClient.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 package mqttclient
 
 import (
-	"github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.golang"
+	mqtt "github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.golang"
 	"go.uber.org/zap"
 )
 
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ type SubscribeOptions struct {
 }
 
 func Subscribe(connectionOptions *mqtt.ClientOptions, subscribeOptions SubscribeOptions) error {
+	oldConnect := connectionOptions.OnConnect
 	connectionOptions.OnConnect = func(client mqtt.Client) {
 		logger := subscribeOptions.Logger
+		oldConnect(client)
 		logger.Info("Connected to MQTT Broker")
 		logger.Info("Will subscribe to topic", zap.String("topic", subscribeOptions.Topic))
 		if token := client.Subscribe(subscribeOptions.Topic, subscribeOptions.QoS, subscribeOptions.OnMessageReceived); token.Wait() && token.Error() != nil {