diff --git a/src/opengradient/client/tee_connection.py b/src/opengradient/client/tee_connection.py
index 2807b88..86c18f5 100644
--- a/src/opengradient/client/tee_connection.py
+++ b/src/opengradient/client/tee_connection.py
@@ -153,8 +153,10 @@ def _connect(self) -> ActiveTEE:
     async def reconnect(self) -> None:
         """Connect to a new TEE from the registry and rebuild the HTTP client."""
         async with self._refresh_lock:
+            old_client = self._active.http_client
+            self._active = self._connect()
             try:
-                self._active = self._connect()
+                await old_client.aclose()
             except Exception:
                 logger.debug("Failed to close previous HTTP client during TEE refresh.", exc_info=True)
 
@@ -198,3 +200,4 @@ async def close(self) -> None:
             self._refresh_task.cancel()
             self._refresh_task = None
         await self._active.http_client.aclose()
+
diff --git a/tests/tee_connection_test.py b/tests/tee_connection_test.py
index 20d02f7..d3172fc 100644
--- a/tests/tee_connection_test.py
+++ b/tests/tee_connection_test.py
@@ -210,11 +210,17 @@ async def test_reconnect_swallows_close_failure(self):
         conn = _make_registry_connection(registry=mock_reg)
         conn.get().http_client.aclose = AsyncMock(side_effect=OSError("already closed"))
 
-        with patch(
-            "opengradient.client.tee_connection.x402HttpxClient",
-            side_effect=FakeHTTPClient,
+        with (
+            patch(
+                "opengradient.client.tee_connection.x402HttpxClient",
+                side_effect=FakeHTTPClient,
+            ),
+            patch(
+                "opengradient.client.tee_connection.build_ssl_context_from_der",
+                return_value=MagicMock(spec=ssl.SSLContext),
+            ),
         ):
-            await conn.reconnect()  # should not raise
+            await conn.reconnect()  # should not raise even when old client aclose errors
 
     async def test_reconnect_is_serialized(self):
         call_order = []