diff --git a/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/isolate_channel.dart b/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/isolate_channel.dart
index c664543..46375c9 100644
--- a/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/isolate_channel.dart
+++ b/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/isolate_channel.dart
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@
     if (_inAddStream) {
       throw new StateError("Cannot add stream while adding stream.");
     }
-    if (_isDone) return;
+    if (_isDone) return new Future.value();
 
     _inAddStream = true;
     var completer = new Completer.sync();
diff --git a/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/stream_channel_transformer.dart b/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/stream_channel_transformer.dart
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be032c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/src/stream_channel_transformer.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2016, the Dart project authors.  Please see the AUTHORS file
+// for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
+// BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+import 'dart:async';
+import 'dart:convert';
+
+import 'package:async/async.dart';
+
+import '../stream_channel.dart';
+
+/// A [StreamChannelTransformer] transforms the events being passed to and
+/// emitted by a [StreamChannel].
+///
+/// This works on the same principle as [StreamTransformer] and
+/// [StreamSinkTransformer]. Each transformer defines a [bind] method that takes
+/// in the original [StreamChannel] and returns the transformed version.
+///
+/// Transformers must be able to have `bind` called multiple times.
+class StreamChannelTransformer<S, T> {
+  /// The transformer to use on the channel's stream.
+  final StreamTransformer _streamTransformer;
+
+  /// The transformer to use on the channel's sink.
+  final StreamSinkTransformer _sinkTransformer;
+
+  /// Creates a [StreamChannelTransformer] from existing stream and sink
+  /// transformers.
+  const StreamChannelTransformer(
+      this._streamTransformer, this._sinkTransformer);
+
+  /// Creates a [StreamChannelTransformer] from a codec's encoder and decoder.
+  ///
+  /// All input to the inner channel's sink is encoded using [Codec.encoder],
+  /// and all output from its stream is decoded using [Codec.decoder].
+  StreamChannelTransformer.fromCodec(Codec<S, T> codec)
+      : this(
+          codec.decoder,
+          new StreamSinkTransformer.fromStreamTransformer(codec.encoder));
+
+  /// Transforms the events sent to and emitted by [channel].
+  ///
+  /// Creates a new channel. When events are passed to the returned channel's
+  /// sink, the transformer will transform them and pass the transformed
+  /// versions to `channel.sink`. When events are emitted from the
+  /// `channel.straem`, the transformer will transform them and pass the
+  /// transformed versions to the returned channel's stream.
+  StreamChannel<S> bind(StreamChannel<T> channel) =>
+      new StreamChannel<S>(
+          channel.stream.transform(_streamTransformer),
+          _sinkTransformer.bind(channel.sink));
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/stream_channel.dart b/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/stream_channel.dart
index 2885e2d..e7fb055 100644
--- a/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/stream_channel.dart
+++ b/pkgs/stream_channel/lib/stream_channel.dart
@@ -3,14 +3,14 @@
 // BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
 import 'dart:async';
-import 'dart:convert';
 
-import 'package:async/async.dart';
+import 'src/stream_channel_transformer.dart';
 
 export 'src/delegating_stream_channel.dart';
 export 'src/isolate_channel.dart';
 export 'src/multi_channel.dart';
 export 'src/stream_channel_completer.dart';
+export 'src/stream_channel_transformer.dart';
 
 /// An abstract class representing a two-way communication channel.
 ///
@@ -70,12 +70,10 @@
   /// directly to the other.
   void pipe(StreamChannel<T> other);
 
-  /// Transforms [this] using [codec].
+  /// Transforms [this] using [transformer].
   ///
-  /// This returns a stream channel that encodes all input using [Codec.encoder]
-  /// before passing it to this channel's [sink], and decodes all output from
-  /// this channel's [stream] using [Codec.decoder].
-  StreamChannel transform(Codec<dynamic, T> codec);
+  /// This is identical to calling `transformer.bind(channel)`.
+  StreamChannel transform(StreamChannelTransformer<dynamic, T> transformer);
 }
 
 /// An implementation of [StreamChannel] that simply takes a stream and a sink
@@ -98,11 +96,6 @@
     other.stream.pipe(sink);
   }
 
-  StreamChannel transform(Codec<dynamic, T> codec) {
-    var sinkTransformer =
-        new StreamSinkTransformer.fromStreamTransformer(codec.encoder);
-    return new _StreamChannel(
-        stream.transform(codec.decoder),
-        sinkTransformer.bind(sink));
-  }
+  StreamChannel transform(StreamChannelTransformer<dynamic, T> transformer) =>
+      transformer.bind(this);
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/stream_channel/test/stream_channel_test.dart b/pkgs/stream_channel/test/stream_channel_test.dart
index 30a7db4..5f006c3 100644
--- a/pkgs/stream_channel/test/stream_channel_test.dart
+++ b/pkgs/stream_channel/test/stream_channel_test.dart
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@
   });
 
   test("transform() transforms the channel", () {
-    var transformed = channel.transform(UTF8);
+    var transformed = channel.transform(
+        new StreamChannelTransformer.fromCodec(UTF8));
 
     streamController.add([102, 111, 111, 98, 97, 114]);
     streamController.close();