diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/BucketCache.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/BucketCache.java
index e63471285df..75d0630966b 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/BucketCache.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/BucketCache.java
@@ -256,8 +256,9 @@ public class BucketCache implements BlockCache, HeapSize {
       writerThreads[i] = new WriterThread(writerQueues.get(i), i);
       writerThreads[i].setName(threadName + "-BucketCacheWriter-" + i);
       writerThreads[i].setDaemon(true);
-      writerThreads[i].start();
     }
+    startWriterThreads();
+
     // Run the statistics thread periodically to print the cache statistics log
     // TODO: Add means of turning this off.  Bit obnoxious running thread just to make a log
     // every five minutes.
@@ -270,6 +271,17 @@ public class BucketCache implements BlockCache, HeapSize {
       persistencePath + ", bucketAllocator=" + this.bucketAllocator);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Called by the constructor to start the writer threads. Used by tests that need to override
+   * starting the threads.
+   */
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  protected void startWriterThreads() {
+    for (WriterThread thread : writerThreads) {
+      thread.start();
+    }
+  }
+
   @VisibleForTesting
   boolean isCacheEnabled() {
     return this.cacheEnabled;
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/TestBucketWriterThread.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/TestBucketWriterThread.java
index 8a6296aa6a5..91f453f6a7f 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/TestBucketWriterThread.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/bucket/TestBucketWriterThread.java
@@ -36,22 +36,35 @@ import java.util.List;
 import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 
-import static java.lang.Thread.State;
 import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;
-import static org.hamcrest.core.IsNot.not;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 
 @Category(SmallTests.class)
 public class TestBucketWriterThread {
-  public static final int MAX_NUMBER_OF_TRIES_BEFORE_TEST_FAILURE = 1000000;
   private BucketCache bc;
   private BucketCache.WriterThread wt;
   private BlockingQueue<RAMQueueEntry> q;
   private Cacheable plainCacheable;
   private BlockCacheKey plainKey;
 
+  /** A BucketCache that does not start its writer threads. */
+  private static class MockBucketCache extends BucketCache {
+
+    public MockBucketCache(String ioEngineName, long capacity, int blockSize, int[] bucketSizes,
+      int writerThreadNum, int writerQLen, String persistencePath, int ioErrorsTolerationDuration)
+      throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
+      super(ioEngineName, capacity, blockSize, bucketSizes, writerThreadNum, writerQLen,
+        persistencePath, ioErrorsTolerationDuration);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void startWriterThreads() {
+      // intentional noop
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Set up variables and get BucketCache and WriterThread into state where tests can  manually
    * control the running of WriterThread and BucketCache is empty.
@@ -64,36 +77,20 @@ public class TestBucketWriterThread {
     // Run with one writer thread only. Means there will be one writer queue only too.  We depend
     // on this in below.
     final int writerThreadsCount = 1;
-    this.bc = new BucketCache("heap", capacity, 1, new int [] {1}, writerThreadsCount,
+    this.bc = new MockBucketCache("heap", capacity, 1, new int [] {1}, writerThreadsCount,
       capacity, null, 100/*Tolerate ioerrors for 100ms*/);
     assertEquals(writerThreadsCount, bc.writerThreads.length);
     assertEquals(writerThreadsCount, bc.writerQueues.size());
     // Get reference to our single WriterThread instance.
     this.wt = bc.writerThreads[0];
     this.q = bc.writerQueues.get(0);
-    // On construction bucketcache WriterThread is blocked on the writer queue so it will not
-    // notice the disabling of the writer until after it has processed an entry.  Lets pass one
-    // through after setting disable flag on the writer. We want to disable the WriterThread so
-    // we can run the doDrain manually so we can watch it working and assert it doing right thing.
-    for (int i = 0; i != MAX_NUMBER_OF_TRIES_BEFORE_TEST_FAILURE; i++) {
-      if (wt.getThread().getState() == State.RUNNABLE) {
-        Thread.sleep(1);
-      }
-    }
-    assertThat(wt.getThread().getState(), is(not(State.RUNNABLE)));
 
     wt.disableWriter();
     this.plainKey = new BlockCacheKey("f", 0);
     this.plainCacheable = Mockito.mock(Cacheable.class);
-    bc.cacheBlock(this.plainKey, plainCacheable);
-    for (int i = 0; i != MAX_NUMBER_OF_TRIES_BEFORE_TEST_FAILURE; i++) {
-      if (!bc.ramCache.isEmpty()) {
-        Thread.sleep(1);
-      }
-    }
+
     assertThat(bc.ramCache.isEmpty(), is(true));
     assertTrue(q.isEmpty());
-    // Now writer thread should be disabled.
   }
 
   @After
@@ -116,7 +113,7 @@ public class TestBucketWriterThread {
   /**
    * Pass through a too big entry and ensure it is cleared from queues and ramCache.
    * Manually run the WriterThread.
-   * @throws InterruptedException 
+   * @throws InterruptedException
    */
   @Test
   public void testTooBigEntry() throws InterruptedException {