diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Chunk.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Chunk.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d968ed9137b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Chunk.java
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
+import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
+
+/**
+ * A chunk of memory out of which allocations are sliced.
+ */
+@InterfaceAudience.Private
+public class Chunk {
+  /** Actual underlying data */
+  private byte[] data;
+
+  private static final int UNINITIALIZED = -1;
+  private static final int OOM = -2;
+  /**
+   * Offset for the next allocation, or the sentinel value -1 which implies that the chunk is still
+   * uninitialized.
+   */
+  private AtomicInteger nextFreeOffset = new AtomicInteger(UNINITIALIZED);
+
+  /** Total number of allocations satisfied from this buffer */
+  private AtomicInteger allocCount = new AtomicInteger();
+
+  /** Size of chunk in bytes */
+  private final int size;
+
+  /**
+   * Create an uninitialized chunk. Note that memory is not allocated yet, so this is cheap.
+   *
+   * @param size in bytes
+   */
+  Chunk(int size) {
+    this.size = size;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Actually claim the memory for this chunk. This should only be called from the thread that
+   * constructed the chunk. It is thread-safe against other threads calling alloc(), who will block
+   * until the allocation is complete.
+   */
+  public void init() {
+    assert nextFreeOffset.get() == UNINITIALIZED;
+    try {
+      if (data == null) {
+        data = new byte[size];
+      }
+    } catch (OutOfMemoryError e) {
+      boolean failInit = nextFreeOffset.compareAndSet(UNINITIALIZED, OOM);
+      assert failInit; // should be true.
+      throw e;
+    }
+    // Mark that it's ready for use
+    boolean initted = nextFreeOffset.compareAndSet(UNINITIALIZED, 0);
+    // We should always succeed the above CAS since only one thread
+    // calls init()!
+    Preconditions.checkState(initted, "Multiple threads tried to init same chunk");
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Reset the offset to UNINITIALIZED before before reusing an old chunk
+   */
+  void reset() {
+    if (nextFreeOffset.get() != UNINITIALIZED) {
+      nextFreeOffset.set(UNINITIALIZED);
+      allocCount.set(0);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Try to allocate <code>size</code> bytes from the chunk.
+   *
+   * @return the offset of the successful allocation, or -1 to indicate not-enough-space
+   */
+  public int alloc(int size) {
+    while (true) {
+      int oldOffset = nextFreeOffset.get();
+      if (oldOffset == UNINITIALIZED) {
+        // The chunk doesn't have its data allocated yet.
+        // Since we found this in curChunk, we know that whoever
+        // CAS-ed it there is allocating it right now. So spin-loop
+        // shouldn't spin long!
+        Thread.yield();
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (oldOffset == OOM) {
+        // doh we ran out of ram. return -1 to chuck this away.
+        return -1;
+      }
+
+      if (oldOffset + size > data.length) {
+        return -1; // alloc doesn't fit
+      }
+
+      // Try to atomically claim this chunk
+      if (nextFreeOffset.compareAndSet(oldOffset, oldOffset + size)) {
+        // we got the alloc
+        allocCount.incrementAndGet();
+        return oldOffset;
+      }
+      // we raced and lost alloc, try again
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @return This chunk's backing data.
+   */
+  byte[] getData() {
+    return this.data;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public String toString() {
+    return "Chunk@" + System.identityHashCode(this) + " allocs=" + allocCount.get() + "waste="
+        + (data.length - nextFreeOffset.get());
+  }
+
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  int getNextFreeOffset() {
+    return this.nextFreeOffset.get();
+  }
+}
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HeapMemStoreLAB.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HeapMemStoreLAB.java
index d8fa5c3934b..3ca4b0c52b2 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HeapMemStoreLAB.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HeapMemStoreLAB.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.MemStoreChunkPool.PooledChunk;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.ByteRange;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.SimpleMutableByteRange;
@@ -67,10 +68,11 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
   static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(HeapMemStoreLAB.class);
 
   private AtomicReference<Chunk> curChunk = new AtomicReference<Chunk>();
-  // A queue of chunks contained by this memstore, used with chunk pool
-  private BlockingQueue<Chunk> chunkQueue = null;
-  final int chunkSize;
-  final int maxAlloc;
+  // A queue of chunks from pool contained by this memstore LAB
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  BlockingQueue<PooledChunk> pooledChunkQueue = null;
+  private final int chunkSize;
+  private final int maxAlloc;
   private final MemStoreChunkPool chunkPool;
 
   // This flag is for closing this instance, its set when clearing snapshot of
@@ -95,7 +97,7 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
     if (this.chunkPool != null) {
       // set queue length to chunk pool max count to avoid keeping reference of
       // too many non-reclaimable chunks
-      chunkQueue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<Chunk>(chunkPool.getMaxCount());
+      pooledChunkQueue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<PooledChunk>(chunkPool.getMaxCount());
     }
 
     // if we don't exclude allocations >CHUNK_SIZE, we'd infiniteloop on one!
@@ -128,7 +130,7 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
       if (allocOffset != -1) {
         // We succeeded - this is the common case - small alloc
         // from a big buffer
-        return new SimpleMutableByteRange(c.data, allocOffset, size);
+        return new SimpleMutableByteRange(c.getData(), allocOffset, size);
       }
 
       // not enough space!
@@ -148,7 +150,7 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
     // opening scanner which will read their data
     if (chunkPool != null && openScannerCount.get() == 0
         && reclaimed.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
-      chunkPool.putbackChunks(this.chunkQueue);
+      chunkPool.putbackChunks(this.pooledChunkQueue);
     }
   }
 
@@ -166,9 +168,9 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
   @Override
   public void decScannerCount() {
     int count = this.openScannerCount.decrementAndGet();
-    if (chunkPool != null && count == 0 && this.closed
+    if (this.closed && chunkPool != null && count == 0
         && reclaimed.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
-      chunkPool.putbackChunks(this.chunkQueue);
+      chunkPool.putbackChunks(this.pooledChunkQueue);
     }
   }
 
@@ -204,20 +206,31 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
       // No current chunk, so we want to allocate one. We race
       // against other allocators to CAS in an uninitialized chunk
       // (which is cheap to allocate)
-      c = (chunkPool != null) ? chunkPool.getChunk() : new Chunk(chunkSize);
+      if (chunkPool != null) {
+        c = chunkPool.getChunk();
+      }
+      boolean pooledChunk = false;
+      if (c != null) {
+        // This is chunk from pool
+        pooledChunk = true;
+      } else {
+        c = new Chunk(chunkSize);
+      }
       if (curChunk.compareAndSet(null, c)) {
         // we won race - now we need to actually do the expensive
         // allocation step
         c.init();
-        if (chunkQueue != null && !this.closed && !this.chunkQueue.offer(c)) {
-          if (LOG.isTraceEnabled()) {
-            LOG.trace("Chunk queue is full, won't reuse this new chunk. Current queue size: "
-                + chunkQueue.size());
+        if (pooledChunk) {
+          if (!this.closed && !this.pooledChunkQueue.offer((PooledChunk) c)) {
+            if (LOG.isTraceEnabled()) {
+              LOG.trace("Chunk queue is full, won't reuse this new chunk. Current queue size: "
+                  + pooledChunkQueue.size());
+            }
           }
         }
         return c;
-      } else if (chunkPool != null) {
-        chunkPool.putbackChunk(c);
+      } else if (pooledChunk) {
+        chunkPool.putbackChunk((PooledChunk) c);
       }
       // someone else won race - that's fine, we'll try to grab theirs
       // in the next iteration of the loop.
@@ -230,119 +243,7 @@ public class HeapMemStoreLAB implements MemStoreLAB {
   }
 
   @VisibleForTesting
-  BlockingQueue<Chunk> getChunkQueue() {
-    return this.chunkQueue;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * A chunk of memory out of which allocations are sliced.
-   */
-  static class Chunk {
-    /** Actual underlying data */
-    private byte[] data;
-
-    private static final int UNINITIALIZED = -1;
-    private static final int OOM = -2;
-    /**
-     * Offset for the next allocation, or the sentinel value -1
-     * which implies that the chunk is still uninitialized.
-     * */
-    private AtomicInteger nextFreeOffset = new AtomicInteger(UNINITIALIZED);
-
-    /** Total number of allocations satisfied from this buffer */
-    private AtomicInteger allocCount = new AtomicInteger();
-
-    /** Size of chunk in bytes */
-    private final int size;
-
-    /**
-     * Create an uninitialized chunk. Note that memory is not allocated yet, so
-     * this is cheap.
-     * @param size in bytes
-     */
-    Chunk(int size) {
-      this.size = size;
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Actually claim the memory for this chunk. This should only be called from
-     * the thread that constructed the chunk. It is thread-safe against other
-     * threads calling alloc(), who will block until the allocation is complete.
-     */
-    public void init() {
-      assert nextFreeOffset.get() == UNINITIALIZED;
-      try {
-        if (data == null) {
-          data = new byte[size];
-        }
-      } catch (OutOfMemoryError e) {
-        boolean failInit = nextFreeOffset.compareAndSet(UNINITIALIZED, OOM);
-        assert failInit; // should be true.
-        throw e;
-      }
-      // Mark that it's ready for use
-      boolean initted = nextFreeOffset.compareAndSet(
-          UNINITIALIZED, 0);
-      // We should always succeed the above CAS since only one thread
-      // calls init()!
-      Preconditions.checkState(initted,
-          "Multiple threads tried to init same chunk");
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Reset the offset to UNINITIALIZED before before reusing an old chunk
-     */
-    void reset() {
-      if (nextFreeOffset.get() != UNINITIALIZED) {
-        nextFreeOffset.set(UNINITIALIZED);
-        allocCount.set(0);
-      }
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Try to allocate <code>size</code> bytes from the chunk.
-     * @return the offset of the successful allocation, or -1 to indicate not-enough-space
-     */
-    public int alloc(int size) {
-      while (true) {
-        int oldOffset = nextFreeOffset.get();
-        if (oldOffset == UNINITIALIZED) {
-          // The chunk doesn't have its data allocated yet.
-          // Since we found this in curChunk, we know that whoever
-          // CAS-ed it there is allocating it right now. So spin-loop
-          // shouldn't spin long!
-          Thread.yield();
-          continue;
-        }
-        if (oldOffset == OOM) {
-          // doh we ran out of ram. return -1 to chuck this away.
-          return -1;
-        }
-
-        if (oldOffset + size > data.length) {
-          return -1; // alloc doesn't fit
-        }
-
-        // Try to atomically claim this chunk
-        if (nextFreeOffset.compareAndSet(oldOffset, oldOffset + size)) {
-          // we got the alloc
-          allocCount.incrementAndGet();
-          return oldOffset;
-        }
-        // we raced and lost alloc, try again
-      }
-    }
-
-    @Override
-    public String toString() {
-      return "Chunk@" + System.identityHashCode(this) +
-        " allocs=" + allocCount.get() + "waste=" +
-        (data.length - nextFreeOffset.get());
-    }
-
-    @VisibleForTesting
-    int getNextFreeOffset() {
-      return this.nextFreeOffset.get();
-    }
+  BlockingQueue<PooledChunk> getChunkQueue() {
+    return this.pooledChunkQueue;
   }
 }
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemStoreChunkPool.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemStoreChunkPool.java
index 81b6046ce50..6b34d752cf9 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemStoreChunkPool.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemStoreChunkPool.java
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceAudience;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.util.HeapMemorySizeUtil;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.regionserver.HeapMemStoreLAB.Chunk;
 import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
 
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
@@ -61,54 +60,69 @@ public class MemStoreChunkPool {
   final static float POOL_INITIAL_SIZE_DEFAULT = 0.0f;
 
   // Static reference to the MemStoreChunkPool
-  private static MemStoreChunkPool GLOBAL_INSTANCE;
+  static MemStoreChunkPool GLOBAL_INSTANCE;
   /** Boolean whether we have disabled the memstore chunk pool entirely. */
   static boolean chunkPoolDisabled = false;
 
   private final int maxCount;
 
   // A queue of reclaimed chunks
-  private final BlockingQueue<Chunk> reclaimedChunks;
+  private final BlockingQueue<PooledChunk> reclaimedChunks;
   private final int chunkSize;
 
   /** Statistics thread schedule pool */
   private final ScheduledExecutorService scheduleThreadPool;
   /** Statistics thread */
   private static final int statThreadPeriod = 60 * 5;
-  private AtomicLong createdChunkCount = new AtomicLong();
-  private AtomicLong reusedChunkCount = new AtomicLong();
+  private final AtomicLong createdChunkCount = new AtomicLong();
+  private final AtomicLong reusedChunkCount = new AtomicLong();
 
   MemStoreChunkPool(Configuration conf, int chunkSize, int maxCount,
       int initialCount) {
     this.maxCount = maxCount;
     this.chunkSize = chunkSize;
-    this.reclaimedChunks = new LinkedBlockingQueue<Chunk>();
+    this.reclaimedChunks = new LinkedBlockingQueue<PooledChunk>();
     for (int i = 0; i < initialCount; i++) {
-      Chunk chunk = new Chunk(chunkSize);
+      PooledChunk chunk = new PooledChunk(chunkSize);
       chunk.init();
       reclaimedChunks.add(chunk);
     }
+    createdChunkCount.set(initialCount);
     final String n = Thread.currentThread().getName();
-    scheduleThreadPool = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1,
-        new ThreadFactoryBuilder().setNameFormat(n+"-MemStoreChunkPool Statistics")
-            .setDaemon(true).build());
-    this.scheduleThreadPool.scheduleAtFixedRate(new StatisticsThread(this),
-        statThreadPeriod, statThreadPeriod, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+    scheduleThreadPool = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1, new ThreadFactoryBuilder()
+        .setNameFormat(n + "-MemStoreChunkPool Statistics").setDaemon(true).build());
+    this.scheduleThreadPool.scheduleAtFixedRate(new StatisticsThread(), statThreadPeriod,
+        statThreadPeriod, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
   }
 
   /**
-   * Poll a chunk from the pool, reset it if not null, else create a new chunk
-   * to return
+   * Poll a chunk from the pool, reset it if not null, else create a new chunk to return if we have
+   * not yet created max allowed chunks count. When we have already created max allowed chunks and
+   * no free chunks as of now, return null. It is the responsibility of the caller to make a chunk
+   * then.
+   * Note: Chunks returned by this pool must be put back to the pool after its use.
    * @return a chunk
+   * @see #putbackChunk(Chunk)
+   * @see #putbackChunks(BlockingQueue)
    */
-  Chunk getChunk() {
-    Chunk chunk = reclaimedChunks.poll();
-    if (chunk == null) {
-      chunk = new Chunk(chunkSize);
-      createdChunkCount.incrementAndGet();
-    } else {
+  PooledChunk getChunk() {
+    PooledChunk chunk = reclaimedChunks.poll();
+    if (chunk != null) {
       chunk.reset();
       reusedChunkCount.incrementAndGet();
+    } else {
+      // Make a chunk iff we have not yet created the maxCount chunks
+      while (true) {
+        long created = this.createdChunkCount.get();
+        if (created < this.maxCount) {
+          chunk = new PooledChunk(chunkSize);
+          if (this.createdChunkCount.compareAndSet(created, created + 1)) {
+            break;
+          }
+        } else {
+          break;
+        }
+      }
     }
     return chunk;
   }
@@ -118,18 +132,11 @@ public class MemStoreChunkPool {
    * skip the remaining chunks
    * @param chunks
    */
-  void putbackChunks(BlockingQueue<Chunk> chunks) {
-    int maxNumToPutback = this.maxCount - reclaimedChunks.size();
-    if (maxNumToPutback <= 0) {
-      return;
-    }
-    chunks.drainTo(reclaimedChunks, maxNumToPutback);
-    // clear reference of any non-reclaimable chunks
-    if (chunks.size() > 0) {
-      if (LOG.isTraceEnabled()) {
-        LOG.trace("Left " + chunks.size() + " unreclaimable chunks, removing them from queue");
-      }
-      chunks.clear();
+  void putbackChunks(BlockingQueue<PooledChunk> chunks) {
+    assert reclaimedChunks.size() < this.maxCount;
+    PooledChunk chunk = null;
+    while ((chunk = chunks.poll()) != null) {
+      reclaimedChunks.add(chunk);
     }
   }
 
@@ -138,10 +145,8 @@ public class MemStoreChunkPool {
    * skip it
    * @param chunk
    */
-  void putbackChunk(Chunk chunk) {
-    if (reclaimedChunks.size() >= this.maxCount) {
-      return;
-    }
+  void putbackChunk(PooledChunk chunk) {
+    assert reclaimedChunks.size() < this.maxCount;
     reclaimedChunks.add(chunk);
   }
 
@@ -156,31 +161,28 @@ public class MemStoreChunkPool {
     this.reclaimedChunks.clear();
   }
 
-  private static class StatisticsThread extends Thread {
-    MemStoreChunkPool mcp;
-
-    public StatisticsThread(MemStoreChunkPool mcp) {
+  private class StatisticsThread extends Thread {
+    StatisticsThread() {
       super("MemStoreChunkPool.StatisticsThread");
       setDaemon(true);
-      this.mcp = mcp;
     }
 
     @Override
     public void run() {
-      mcp.logStats();
+      logStats();
     }
-  }
 
-  private void logStats() {
-    if (!LOG.isDebugEnabled()) return;
-    long created = createdChunkCount.get();
-    long reused = reusedChunkCount.get();
-    long total = created + reused;
-    LOG.debug("Stats: current pool size=" + reclaimedChunks.size()
-        + ",created chunk count=" + created
-        + ",reused chunk count=" + reused
-        + ",reuseRatio=" + (total == 0 ? "0" : StringUtils.formatPercent(
-            (float) reused / (float) total, 2)));
+    private void logStats() {
+      if (!LOG.isDebugEnabled()) return;
+      long created = createdChunkCount.get();
+      long reused = reusedChunkCount.get();
+      long total = created + reused;
+      LOG.debug("Stats: current pool size=" + reclaimedChunks.size()
+          + ",created chunk count=" + created
+          + ",reused chunk count=" + reused
+          + ",reuseRatio=" + (total == 0 ? "0" : StringUtils.formatPercent(
+              (float) reused / (float) total, 2)));
+    }
   }
 
   /**
@@ -234,4 +236,9 @@ public class MemStoreChunkPool {
     chunkPoolDisabled = false;
   }
 
+  public static class PooledChunk extends Chunk {
+    PooledChunk(int size) {
+      super(size);
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/TestMemStoreChunkPool.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/TestMemStoreChunkPool.java
index b5e979890c9..c53ce809bc0 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/TestMemStoreChunkPool.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/TestMemStoreChunkPool.java
@@ -196,4 +196,43 @@ public class TestMemStoreChunkPool {
     assertTrue(chunkPool.getPoolSize() > 0);
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testPutbackChunksMultiThreaded() throws Exception {
+    MemStoreChunkPool oldPool = MemStoreChunkPool.GLOBAL_INSTANCE;
+    final int maxCount = 10;
+    final int initialCount = 5;
+    final int chunkSize = 10;
+    MemStoreChunkPool pool = new MemStoreChunkPool(conf, chunkSize, maxCount, initialCount);
+    assertEquals(initialCount, pool.getPoolSize());
+    assertEquals(maxCount, pool.getMaxCount());
+    MemStoreChunkPool.GLOBAL_INSTANCE = pool;// Replace the global ref with the new one we created.
+                                             // Used it for the testing. Later in finally we put
+                                             // back the original
+    try {
+      Runnable r = new Runnable() {
+        @Override
+        public void run() {
+          MemStoreLAB memStoreLAB = new HeapMemStoreLAB(conf);
+          for (int i = 0; i < maxCount; i++) {
+            memStoreLAB.allocateBytes(chunkSize);// Try allocate size = chunkSize. Means every
+                                                 // allocate call will result in a new chunk
+          }
+          // Close MemStoreLAB so that all chunks will be tried to be put back to pool
+          memStoreLAB.close();
+        }
+      };
+      Thread t1 = new Thread(r);
+      Thread t2 = new Thread(r);
+      Thread t3 = new Thread(r);
+      t1.start();
+      t2.start();
+      t3.start();
+      t1.join();
+      t2.join();
+      t3.join();
+      assertTrue(pool.getPoolSize() <= maxCount);
+    } finally {
+      MemStoreChunkPool.GLOBAL_INSTANCE = oldPool;
+    }
+  }
 }