diff --git a/Lib/subprocess.py b/Lib/subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py
@@ -538,6 +538,14 @@
 
     retcode = call(["ls", "-l"])
     """
+    if PIPE in popenargs or PIPE in kwargs.values():
+        warnings.warn("Do not use PIPE with this function. "
+             "The child process will block if it generates enough output to a "
+             "pipe to fill up the OS pipe buffer as the pipes are not being "
+             "read from/written to. "
+             "ValueError will be raised in 3.6. "
+             "Use DEVNULL to discard output/provide empty input instead.",
+             DeprecationWarning, 2)
     with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
         try:
             return p.wait(timeout=timeout)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py b/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
@@ -117,6 +117,27 @@
                               "import sys; sys.exit(47)"])
         self.assertEqual(rc, 47)
 
+    def test_call_pipe_arg(self):
+        # call() function with PIPE argument
+        call = subprocess.call
+        cmd = [sys.executable, "-c", "import sys; sys.exit(47)"]
+        kwargs = dict(stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        if sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 6):
+            self.assertEqual(call(cmd), 47)
+            with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+                call(cmd, **kwargs)
+        else: # remove this part in 3.6+,
+            # don't forget to remove the warning from docs too
+            with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as w:
+                warnings.resetwarnings() # clear all filters
+                warnings.simplefilter('ignore') # ignore all
+                warnings.simplefilter('always', DeprecationWarning) # add filter
+                self.assertEqual(call(cmd), 47)
+                self.assertFalse(w)
+                self.assertEqual(call(cmd, **kwargs), 47)
+                self.assertTrue(w)
+                self.assertTrue(issubclass(w[-1].category, DeprecationWarning))
+
     def test_call_timeout(self):
         # call() function with timeout argument; we want to test that the child
         # process gets killed when the timeout expires.  If the child isn't