diff --git a/includes/rules.plugins.inc b/includes/rules.plugins.inc
index 472ac5a..90b306d 100644
--- a/includes/rules.plugins.inc
+++ b/includes/rules.plugins.inc
@@ -809,7 +809,7 @@ class RulesEventSet extends RulesRuleSet {
     }
     // Cache a whitelist of configured events so we can use it to speed up later
     // calls. See rules_invoke_event().
-    cache_set('rules_event_whitelist', array_flip(array_keys($sets)), 'cache_rules');
+    rules_set_cache('rules_event_whitelist', array_flip(array_keys($sets)));
   }
 
   protected function stateVariables($element = NULL) {
diff --git a/rules.install b/rules.install
index 3bc8a43..6e3963a 100644
--- a/rules.install
+++ b/rules.install
@@ -503,10 +503,13 @@ function rules_update_7213() {
 
 /**
  * Switch out the rules_event_whitelist variable for a cache equivalent.
+ *
+ * Call variable_set() can be really costly on sites.
  */
 function rules_update_7214() {
   // Set new event_whitelist cache cid.
-  cache_set('rules_event_whitelist', variable_get('rules_event_whitelist', array()), 'cache_rules');
+  rules_set_cache('rules_event_whitelist', variable_get('rules_event_whitelist', array()));
+
   // Delete old conf variable.
   variable_del('rules_event_whitelist');
   // Avoid any missing class errors.