diff --git a/src/main/java/org/vertx/java/core/impl/DefaultVertx.java b/src/main/java/org/vertx/java/core/impl/DefaultVertx.java
index 4911c3530cc..91bb35a822c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/vertx/java/core/impl/DefaultVertx.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/vertx/java/core/impl/DefaultVertx.java
@@ -63,11 +63,10 @@ public class DefaultVertx extends VertxInternal {
   private final EventBus eventBus;
   private final SharedData sharedData = new SharedData();
 
-  private int backgroundPoolSize = 1;
+  private int backgroundPoolSize = 20;
   private int corePoolSize = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
   private ExecutorService backgroundPool;
   private OrderedExecutorFactory orderedFact;
-  private ExecutorService corePool;
   private NioWorkerPool workerPool;
   private ExecutorService acceptorPool;
   private final Map<ServerID, DefaultHttpServer> sharedHttpServers = new HashMap<>();
@@ -139,14 +138,6 @@ public Context startInBackground(final Runnable runnable) {
     return context;
   }
 
-  private void runOnContext(final Context context, final Runnable runnable) {
-    context.execute(new Runnable() {
-      public void run() {
-        runnable.run();
-      }
-    });
-  }
-
   public boolean isEventLoop() {
     Context context = Context.getContext();
     if (context != null) {
@@ -203,7 +194,7 @@ public NioWorkerPool getWorkerPool() {
       synchronized (this) {
         result = workerPool;
         if (result == null) {
-          corePool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(corePoolSize, new VertxThreadFactory("vert.x-core-thread-"));
+          ExecutorService corePool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(corePoolSize, new VertxThreadFactory("vert.x-core-thread-"));
           workerPool = result = new NioWorkerPool(corePool, corePoolSize, false);
         }
       }
@@ -254,6 +245,14 @@ public Map<ServerID, DefaultNetServer> sharedNetServers() {
     return sharedNetServers;
   }
 
+  private void runOnContext(final Context context, final Runnable runnable) {
+    context.execute(new Runnable() {
+      public void run() {
+        runnable.run();
+      }
+    });
+  }
+
   private long setTimeout(final long delay, boolean periodic, final Handler<Long> handler) {
     final Context context = getOrAssignContext();
 
diff --git a/src/tests/javascript/busmods/worker/test_worker.js b/src/tests/javascript/busmods/worker/test_worker.js
index d24c4a4277c..47e0676650f 100644
--- a/src/tests/javascript/busmods/worker/test_worker.js
+++ b/src/tests/javascript/busmods/worker/test_worker.js
@@ -61,6 +61,5 @@ tu.appReady();
 
 function vertxStop() {
   vertx.eventBus.unregisterHandler('testWorker', handler);
-  tu.checkContext();
   tu.appStopped();
 }
diff --git a/src/tests/javascript/busmods/workqueue/order_processor.js b/src/tests/javascript/busmods/workqueue/order_processor.js
index 0d234aafc48..6f090a6bd9f 100644
--- a/src/tests/javascript/busmods/workqueue/order_processor.js
+++ b/src/tests/javascript/busmods/workqueue/order_processor.js
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ function vertxStop() {
     processor: id
   });
   eb.unregisterHandler(id, handler);
-  tu.checkContext();
   if (!dontsendAppLifeCycle) {
     tu.appStopped();
   }