diff --git a/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.h b/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.h
index ea5541e6..e27b5b09 100644
--- a/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.h
+++ b/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.h
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ freely, subject to the following restrictions:
 
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Impl/TypeDef.h"
 
-#include "PolyVoxCore/Compressor.h"
+#include "PolyVoxCore/PolyVoxForwardDeclarations.h"
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Vector.h"
 
 #include <limits>
diff --git a/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.inl b/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.inl
index b4abf7d6..374ae124 100644
--- a/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.inl
+++ b/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/Impl/Block.inl
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ freely, subject to the following restrictions:
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Impl/ErrorHandling.h"
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Impl/Utility.h"
 
-#include "PolyVoxCore/MinizCompressor.h"
-#include "PolyVoxCore/RLECompressor.h"
+#include "PolyVoxCore/Compressor.h"
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Vector.h"
 
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Impl/ErrorHandling.h"
diff --git a/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/RLECompressor.inl b/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/RLECompressor.inl
index 600e2cf9..1b274d30 100644
--- a/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/RLECompressor.inl
+++ b/library/PolyVoxCore/include/PolyVoxCore/RLECompressor.inl
@@ -17,7 +17,10 @@ namespace PolyVox
 	template<typename ValueType, typename LengthType>
 	uint32_t RLECompressor<ValueType, LengthType>::compress(void* pSrcData, uint32_t uSrcLength, void* pDstData, uint32_t uDstLength)
 	{
-		assert(uSrcLength % sizeof(ValueType) == 0);
+		if(uSrcLength % sizeof(ValueType) != 0)
+		{
+			POLYVOX_THROW(std::length_error, "Source length must be a integer multiple of the ValueType size");
+		}
 
 		uSrcLength /= sizeof(ValueType);
 		uDstLength /= sizeof(Run);
@@ -60,7 +63,10 @@ namespace PolyVox
 	template<typename ValueType, typename LengthType>
 	uint32_t RLECompressor<ValueType, LengthType>::decompress(void* pSrcData, uint32_t uSrcLength, void* pDstData, uint32_t uDstLength)
 	{
-		assert(uSrcLength % sizeof(Run) == 0);
+		if(uSrcLength % sizeof(Run) != 0)
+		{
+			POLYVOX_THROW(std::length_error, "Source length must be a integer multiple of the Run size");
+		}
 
 		uSrcLength /= sizeof(Run);
 		uDstLength /= sizeof(ValueType);
diff --git a/library/polyvoxcore/source/MinizCompressor.cpp b/library/polyvoxcore/source/MinizCompressor.cpp
index f0dc06a6..30b7988c 100644
--- a/library/polyvoxcore/source/MinizCompressor.cpp
+++ b/library/polyvoxcore/source/MinizCompressor.cpp
@@ -9,11 +9,16 @@
 #define MINIZ_NO_ZLIB_COMPATIBLE_NAMES
 //#define MINIZ_NO_MALLOC
 
+#include "PolyVoxCore/Impl/ErrorHandling.h"
 // For some unknown reason the miniz library is supplied only as a 
 // single .c file without a header. Apparently the only way to use 
 // it is then to #include it directly which is what the examples do.
 #include "PolyVoxCore/Impl/miniz.c"
 
+#include <sstream>
+
+using namespace std;
+
 namespace PolyVox
 {
 	MinizCompressor::MinizCompressor()
@@ -30,7 +35,12 @@ namespace PolyVox
 
 		// Do the compression
 		int result = mz_compress((unsigned char*)pDstData, &ulDstLength, (const unsigned char*) pSrcData, uSrcLength);
-		assert(result == MZ_OK);
+		if(result != MZ_OK)
+		{
+			stringstream ss;
+			ss << "mz_compress() failed with return code '" << result << "'";
+			POLYVOX_THROW(std::runtime_error, ss.str());
+		}
 
 		// Return the number of bytes written to the output.
 		return ulDstLength;
@@ -41,7 +51,12 @@ namespace PolyVox
 		mz_ulong ulDstLength = uDstLength;
 
 		int result = mz_uncompress((unsigned char*) pDstData, &ulDstLength, (const unsigned char*) pSrcData, uSrcLength);
-		assert(result == MZ_OK);
+		if(result != MZ_OK)
+		{
+			stringstream ss;
+			ss << "mz_uncompress() failed with return code '" << result << "'";
+			POLYVOX_THROW(std::runtime_error, ss.str());
+		}
 
 		return ulDstLength;
 	}
diff --git a/tests/testvolume.cpp b/tests/testvolume.cpp
index 5d704760..74a3ffa1 100644
--- a/tests/testvolume.cpp
+++ b/tests/testvolume.cpp
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ freely, subject to the following restrictions:
 #include "testvolume.h"
 
 #include "PolyVoxCore/LargeVolume.h"
+#include "PolyVoxCore/MinizCompressor.h"
 #include "PolyVoxCore/RawVolume.h"
 #include "PolyVoxCore/RLECompressor.h"
 #include "PolyVoxCore/SimpleVolume.h"
@@ -270,7 +271,8 @@ TestVolume::TestVolume()
 {
 	Region region(-57, -31, 12, 64, 96, 131); // Deliberatly awkward size
 
-	m_pCompressor = new RLECompressor<int32_t, uint16_t>;
+	//m_pCompressor = new RLECompressor<int32_t, uint16_t>;
+	m_pCompressor = new MinizCompressor;
 
 	//Create the volumes
 	m_pRawVolume = new RawVolume<int32_t>(region);