Apacha HttpClient configuration - apache-httpclient-4.x

Question

I'm currently using RestTemplate backed by Apache http client 4.5.6 in my web server for making http requests. My HttpClient configuration is as follows:
PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager connectionManager = new PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager();
connectionManager.setMaxTotal(httpConfigurationProperties.getConnection().getMaxTotal());
connectionManager.setDefaultMaxPerRoute(httpConfigurationProperties.getConnection()
return HttpClients.custom()
.setDefaultRequestConfig(RequestConfig
.custom()
.setConnectionRequestTimeout((int) httpConfigurationProperties.getTimeout().getConnectionRequestTimeout().toMillis())
.setConnectTimeout((int) httpConfigurationProperties.getTimeout().getConnectTimeout().toMillis())
.setSocketTimeout((int) httpConfigurationProperties.getTimeout().getReadTimeout().toMillis())
.build())
.setRetryHandler(StandardHttpRequestRetryHandler.INSTANCE)
.setConnectionManager(connectionManager)
.build();
When I make a HTTP GET, once in a while i see this:
I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when processing
request to {s}->: Connection reset
I have read in another post that this is caused by server(that I'm sending request to) closing the connection without informing client. And StandardHttpRequestRetryHandler was able to retry it. But HTTP POST methods are not retried because they are not idempotent operations. But is there a configuration that can avoid this connection reset in first place?
And I have tried using evictExpiredConnections and does not help. Will setting connectionManager.setValidateAfterInactivity(20000) help validating connection before using?
Before using apache http client I used SimpleClientHttpRequestFactory in RestTemplate and I never faced connection reset issues. Any help is appreciated