diff --git a/src/components/select/select.ts b/src/components/select/select.ts
index b5d4acfaba..19da56ae24 100644
--- a/src/components/select/select.ts
+++ b/src/components/select/select.ts
@@ -147,12 +147,13 @@ import { SelectPopover, SelectPopoverOption } from './select-popover-component';
   providers: [ { provide: NG_VALUE_ACCESSOR, useExisting: Select, multi: true } ],
   encapsulation: ViewEncapsulation.None,
 })
-export class Select extends BaseInput<string[]> implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
+export class Select extends BaseInput<string[]|string> implements AfterViewInit, OnDestroy {
 
   _multi: boolean = false;
   _options: QueryList<Option>;
   _texts: string[] = [];
   _text: string = '';
+  _values: string[] = [];
 
   /**
    * @input {string} The text to display on the cancel button. Default: `Cancel`.
@@ -394,7 +395,7 @@ export class Select extends BaseInput<string[]> implements AfterViewInit, OnDest
   set options(val: QueryList<Option>) {
     this._options = val;
 
-    if (this._value.length === 0) {
+    if (this._values.length === 0) {
       // there are no values set at this point
       // so check to see who should be selected
       // we use writeValue() because we don't want to update ngModel
@@ -404,14 +405,7 @@ export class Select extends BaseInput<string[]> implements AfterViewInit, OnDest
     }
   }
 
-  _inputNormalize(val: any): string[] {
-    if (Array.isArray(val)) {
-      return val;
-    }
-    return [val + ''];
-  }
-
-  _inputShouldChange(val: string[]): boolean {
+  _inputShouldChange(val: string[]|string): boolean {
     return !deepEqual(this._value, val);
   }
 
@@ -420,11 +414,12 @@ export class Select extends BaseInput<string[]> implements AfterViewInit, OnDest
    */
   _inputUpdated() {
     this._texts.length = 0;
+    this._values = Array.isArray(this._value) ? this._value : [this._value + ''];
 
     if (this._options) {
       this._options.forEach(option => {
         // check this option if the option's value is in the values array
-        option.selected = this._value.some(selectValue => {
+        option.selected = this._values.some(selectValue => {
           return isCheckedProperty(selectValue, option.value);
         });
 
diff --git a/src/components/select/test/select.spec.ts b/src/components/select/test/select.spec.ts
index 1ff033d05e..e6ec16956d 100644
--- a/src/components/select/test/select.spec.ts
+++ b/src/components/select/test/select.spec.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ describe('Select', () => {
       corpus: [
         [['hola'], ['hola']],
         [null, []],
-        ['hola', ['hola']],
+        ['hola', 'hola'],
         [['hola', 'adios'], ['hola', 'adios']]
       ]
     });
diff --git a/src/util/base-input.ts b/src/util/base-input.ts
index 7630a1cd9b..3afd327feb 100644
--- a/src/util/base-input.ts
+++ b/src/util/base-input.ts
@@ -238,6 +238,16 @@ export class BaseInput<T> extends Ion implements CommonInput<T> {
     return this._isFocus;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @hidden
+   */
+  hasValue(): boolean {
+    const val = this._value;
+    return isArray(val)
+      ? val.length > 0
+      : isPresent(val);
+  }
+
   /**
    * @hidden
    */
@@ -260,12 +270,7 @@ export class BaseInput<T> extends Ion implements CommonInput<T> {
     if (!this._item) {
       return;
     }
-
-    const hasValue = isArray(val)
-      ? val.length > 0
-      : isPresent(val);
-
-    this._item.setElementClass('input-has-value', hasValue);
+    this._item.setElementClass('input-has-value', this.hasValue());
   }
 
   /**