diff --git a/src/apex/apex_kokkos_tuning.cpp b/src/apex/apex_kokkos_tuning.cpp
index 66014ba2..5b034dfa 100644
--- a/src/apex/apex_kokkos_tuning.cpp
+++ b/src/apex/apex_kokkos_tuning.cpp
@@ -990,9 +990,10 @@ bool handle_start(const std::string & name, const size_t vars,
             }
             double result = profile->minimum;
             if (result == 0.0) result = profile->accumulated/profile->calls;
+            result = result * 1.0e-9; // convert to seconds to help search math
             if(verbose) {
                 std::cout << std::string(getDepth(), ' ');
-                std::cout << "querying time per call: " << (double)(result)/1000000000.0 << "s" << std::endl;
+                std::cout << "querying time per call: " << result << "s" << std::endl;
             }
             return result;
         };
@@ -1314,7 +1315,7 @@ void kokkosp_end_context(const size_t contextId) {
         start != session.context_starts.end()) {
         if (session.verbose) {
             std::cout << std::string(getDepth(), ' ');
-            std::cout << name->second << "\t" << (end-(start->second)) << std::endl;
+            std::cout << name->second << "\t" << (end-(start->second)) << " sec." << std::endl;
         }
         if (session.used_history.count(contextId) == 0) {
             apex::sample_value(name->second, (double)(end-(start->second)));
diff --git a/src/apex/nelder_mead.cpp b/src/apex/nelder_mead.cpp
index cc1a7222..8f3a3c70 100644
--- a/src/apex/nelder_mead.cpp
+++ b/src/apex/nelder_mead.cpp
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ void NelderMead::start(void) {
         init_simplex.push_back(tmp2);
     }
     searcher = new apex::internal::nelder_mead::Searcher<double>(init_point, init_simplex, lower_limit, upper_limit, false);
-    searcher->function_tolerance(10000);
+    searcher->function_tolerance(1.0e-4);
     if (hasDiscrete) {
         searcher->point_tolerance(1.0);
     } else {
@@ -110,10 +110,6 @@ void NelderMead::evaluate(double new_cost) {
             std::cout << std::endl;
         }
         cost = new_cost;
-        // if the function evaluation takes a long time (in nanoseconds, remember), increase our tolerance.
-        auto tmp = std::max((new_cost / 50.0), 1000.0);
-        //std::cout << "new function tolerance: " << tmp << std::endl;
-        searcher->function_tolerance(tmp);
     }
     k++;
     return;
diff --git a/src/apex/nelder_mead_internal.h b/src/apex/nelder_mead_internal.h
index b34115a7..0c658959 100644
--- a/src/apex/nelder_mead_internal.h
+++ b/src/apex/nelder_mead_internal.h
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 #include <sstream>
 #include <stdexcept>
 #include <vector>
+#include "apex_options.hpp"
 
 namespace apex {
 namespace internal {
@@ -211,7 +212,7 @@ template <typename T = double> class Searcher {
         : adaptive(_adaptive), tol_fun(1e-8), tol_x(1e-8), max_iter(1000),
           max_fun_evals(2000), current_simplex_index(0),
           minimum_limits(_minimum_limits), maximum_limits(_maximum_limits),
-          _converged(false), verbose(false) {
+          _converged(false), verbose(apex_options::use_verbose()) {
         initialize(initial_point, initial_simplex);
     }
     void function_tolerance(T tol) {