diff --git a/Control/Concurrent/STM/BTChan.hs b/Control/Concurrent/STM/BTChan.hs
--- a/Control/Concurrent/STM/BTChan.hs
+++ b/Control/Concurrent/STM/BTChan.hs
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 
 import Control.Concurrent.STM
 import Control.Monad (when, liftM)
-import Control.Applicative
 
 -- |A 'BTChan' is a bounded 'TChan' - a FIFO channel using 'TChan' and
 -- a transactional variable to limit the number of elements on the channel.
@@ -30,11 +29,19 @@
 -- |An IO version of 'newBTChanIO'.  This should be useful with unsafePerformIO
 -- in the same manner as 'newTVarIO' and 'newTChanIO' are used.
 newBTChanIO :: Int -> IO (BTChan a)
-newBTChanIO m = BTChan m <$> newTChanIO <*> newTVarIO 0 <*> newTVarIO 0
+newBTChanIO m = do
+    c <- newTChanIO
+    rs <- newTVarIO 0
+    ws <- newTVarIO 0
+    return $ BTChan m c rs ws
 
 -- |@newBTChan m@ make a new bounded TChan of max size @m@.
 newBTChan :: Int -> STM (BTChan a)
-newBTChan m = BTChan m <$> newTChan <*> newTVar 0 <*> newTVar 0
+newBTChan m = do
+    c <- newTChan
+    rs <- newTVar 0
+    ws <- newTVar 0
+    return $ BTChan m c rs ws
 
 -- |Writes the value to the 'BTChan' or blocks if the channel is full.
 writeBTChan :: BTChan a -> a -> STM ()
@@ -110,7 +117,10 @@
 
 -- |Get the current number of elements in the 'BTChan'.
 sizeOfBTChan :: BTChan a -> STM Int
-sizeOfBTChan (BTChan _ _ rdTV wrTV) = (+) <$> readTVar wrTV <*> readTVar rdTV
+sizeOfBTChan (BTChan _ _ rdTV wrTV) = do
+    w <- readTVar wrTV
+    r <- readTVar rdTV
+    return $ w + r
 
 -- |@let c2 = setMaxOfBTChan c1 mx@ Using the same underlying 'TChan',
 -- set a new maximum number of messages, @mx@.  If the current size
diff --git a/bounded-tchan.cabal b/bounded-tchan.cabal
--- a/bounded-tchan.cabal
+++ b/bounded-tchan.cabal
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 Name:                bounded-tchan
-Version:             0.2.2
+Version:             0.2.3
 Synopsis:            Bounded Transactional channels (queues)
-Description:         Bounded TChan's, or BTChan's, are a transactional queue with a limit to the number of elements (further calls to @writeBTChan@ or @unGetBTChan@ call STM retry).
+Description:         Bounded TChan's, or BTChan's, are a transactional queue with a limit to the number of elements (further calls to @writeBTChan@ or @unGetBTChan@ call STM retry).  Users are strongly encouraged to consider using the more complete 'stm-chans' packages, which includes a bounded TChan designed on this package.
+
 
 License:             BSD3
 License-file:        LICENSE