diff --git a/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoost.java b/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoost.java
index e61b98400faf..b1a41c6d843b 100644
--- a/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoost.java
+++ b/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoost.java
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 import hex.glm.GLMModel;
 import hex.tree.drf.DRF;
 import hex.tree.drf.DRFModel;
-import hex.tree.dt.DTModel;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 import water.*;
 import water.exceptions.H2OModelBuilderIllegalArgumentException;
@@ -27,6 +26,7 @@ public class AdaBoost extends ModelBuilder<AdaBoostModel, AdaBoostModel.AdaBoost
     private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(AdaBoost.class);
 
     private AdaBoostModel _model;
+    private String _weightsName = "weights";
 
     // Called from an http request
     public AdaBoost(AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters parms) {
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ public void init(boolean expensive) {
             if (_parms._weak_learner == AdaBoostModel.Algorithm.AUTO) {
                 _parms._weak_learner = AdaBoostModel.Algorithm.DRF;
             }
+            if (_parms._weights_column != null) {
+                // _parms._weights_column cannot be used all time since it breaks scoring
+                _weightsName = _parms._weights_column;
+            }
         }
     }
 
@@ -82,12 +86,19 @@ public void computeImpl() {
         private void buildAdaboost() {
             _model._output.alphas = new double[(int)_parms._n_estimators];
             _model._output.models = new Key[(int)_parms._n_estimators];
-            
-            Frame _trainWithWeights = new Frame(train());
-            Vec weights = _trainWithWeights.anyVec().makeCons(1,1,null,null)[0];
-            _trainWithWeights.add("weights", weights);
-            DKV.put(_trainWithWeights);
-            Scope.track(weights);
+
+            Frame _trainWithWeights;
+            if (_parms._weights_column == null) {
+                _trainWithWeights = new Frame(train());
+                Vec weights = _trainWithWeights.anyVec().makeCons(1,1,null,null)[0];
+                _weightsName = _trainWithWeights.uniquify(_weightsName); // be sure that we are not accidentally using some column in the train
+                _trainWithWeights.add(_weightsName, weights);
+                DKV.put(_trainWithWeights);
+                Scope.track(weights);
+                _weightsName = _trainWithWeights.lastVecName();
+            } else {
+                _trainWithWeights = _parms.train();
+            }
             
             for (int n = 0; n < _parms._n_estimators; n++) {
                 ModelBuilder job = chooseWeakLearner(_trainWithWeights);
@@ -99,17 +110,19 @@ private void buildAdaboost() {
                 Frame score = model.score(_trainWithWeights);
                 Scope.track(score);
 
-                CountWeTask countWe = new CountWeTask().doAll(_trainWithWeights.vec("weights"), _trainWithWeights.vec(_parms._response_column), score.vec("predict"));
+                CountWeTask countWe = new CountWeTask().doAll(_trainWithWeights.vec(_weightsName), _trainWithWeights.vec(_parms._response_column), score.vec("predict"));
                 double e_m = countWe.We / countWe.W;
                 double alpha_m = _parms._learning_rate * Math.log((1 - e_m) / e_m);
                 _model._output.alphas[n] = alpha_m;
 
                 UpdateWeightsTask updateWeightsTask = new UpdateWeightsTask(alpha_m);
-                updateWeightsTask.doAll(_trainWithWeights.vec("weights"), _trainWithWeights.vec(_parms._response_column), score.vec("predict"));
+                updateWeightsTask.doAll(_trainWithWeights.vec(_weightsName), _trainWithWeights.vec(_parms._response_column), score.vec("predict"));
                 _job.update(1);
                 _model.update(_job);
             }
-            DKV.remove(_trainWithWeights._key);
+            if (_trainWithWeights != _parms.train()) {
+                DKV.remove(_trainWithWeights._key);
+            }
             _model._output._model_summary = createModelSummaryTable();
         }
     }
@@ -153,7 +166,7 @@ private DRF getDRFWeakLearner(Frame frame) {
         parms._response_column = _parms._response_column;
         parms._mtries = 1;
         parms._min_rows = 1;
-        parms._weights_column = "weights";
+        parms._weights_column = _weightsName;
         parms._ntrees = 1;
         parms._sample_rate = 1;
         parms._max_depth = 1;
diff --git a/h2o-algos/src/test/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoostTest.java b/h2o-algos/src/test/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoostTest.java
index b84bc13a2c4c..79b419683dda 100644
--- a/h2o-algos/src/test/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoostTest.java
+++ b/h2o-algos/src/test/java/hex/adaboost/AdaBoostTest.java
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@
 import water.runner.CloudSize;
 import water.runner.H2ORunner;
 import water.util.FrameUtils;
-import water.util.VecUtils;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.*;
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 @RunWith(H2ORunner.class)
 public class AdaBoostTest extends TestUtil {
     
-    public boolean print = true;
+    public boolean print = false;
 
     @Rule
     public EnvironmentVariables environmentVariables = new EnvironmentVariables();
@@ -355,4 +355,123 @@ public void testUpdateWeights() {
             Scope.exit();
         }
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testBasicTrainAndScoreWithExternalWeightsColumn() {
+        try {
+            // Train reference model
+            Scope.enter();
+            Frame train = parseTestFile("smalldata/prostate/prostate.csv");
+            String response = "CAPSULE";
+            train.toCategoricalCol(response);
+            Scope.track(train);
+            AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters p = new AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters();
+            p._train = train._key;
+            p._seed = 0xDECAF;
+            p._n_estimators = 10;
+            p._response_column = response;
+
+            AdaBoost adaBoostReference = new AdaBoost(p);
+            AdaBoostModel adaBoostReferenceModel = adaBoostReference.trainModel().get();
+            Scope.track_generic(adaBoostReferenceModel);
+            assertNotNull(adaBoostReferenceModel);
+
+            // Add weights column to frame and train different model
+            Vec weights = train.anyVec().makeCons(1,1,null,null)[0];
+            train.add("weights", weights);
+            DKV.put(train);
+            Scope.track(train);
+            p._weights_column = "weights";
+
+            AdaBoost adaBoostWithExternalWeights = new AdaBoost(p);
+            AdaBoostModel adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights = adaBoostWithExternalWeights.trainModel().get();
+            Scope.track_generic(adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights);
+            assertNotNull(adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights);
+
+            // Check that output is identical
+            Frame scoreReference = adaBoostReferenceModel.score(train);
+            Scope.track(scoreReference);
+            Frame scoreWithExternalWeights = adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights.score(train);
+            Scope.track(scoreWithExternalWeights);
+            assertFrameEquals(scoreReference, scoreWithExternalWeights, 0); // output should be identical
+            assertFalse("Weights column should be change in the training", weights.isConst());
+        } finally {
+            Scope.exit();
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testBasicTrainAndScoreWithCustomWeightsColumn() {
+        try {
+            // Train reference model
+            Scope.enter();
+            Frame train = parseTestFile("smalldata/prostate/prostate.csv");
+            String response = "CAPSULE";
+            train.toCategoricalCol(response);
+            Scope.track(train);
+            AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters p = new AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters();
+            p._train = train._key;
+            p._seed = 0xDECAF;
+            p._n_estimators = 10;
+            p._response_column = response;
+
+            AdaBoost adaBoostReference = new AdaBoost(p);
+            AdaBoostModel adaBoostReferenceModel = adaBoostReference.trainModel().get();
+            Scope.track_generic(adaBoostReferenceModel);
+            assertNotNull(adaBoostReferenceModel);
+
+            // Set custom weights column
+            p._weights_column = "RACE";
+            double maxReference = train.vec("RACE").max(); // for future assert
+            AdaBoost adaBoostWithExternalWeights = new AdaBoost(p);
+            AdaBoostModel adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights = adaBoostWithExternalWeights.trainModel().get();
+            Scope.track_generic(adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights);
+            assertNotNull(adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights);
+
+            // Check that output is identical
+            Frame scoreReference = adaBoostReferenceModel.score(train);
+            Scope.track(scoreReference);
+            Frame scoreWithExternalWeights = adaBoostModelWithExternalWeights.score(train);
+            Scope.track(scoreWithExternalWeights);
+            // output should be different since the weights are not initialize on purpose
+            assertFalse(Arrays.equals(FrameUtils.asDoubles(scoreReference.vec("predict")), FrameUtils.asDoubles(scoreWithExternalWeights.vec("predict"))));
+            assertNotEquals("RACE column should be changed in the training", maxReference, train.vec("RACE").max());
+        } finally {
+            Scope.exit();
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testBasicTrainAndScoreWithDuplicatedWeightsColumn() {
+        try {
+            Scope.enter();
+            Frame train = parseTestFile("smalldata/prostate/prostate.csv");
+            // Add weights column to frame
+            Vec weights = train.anyVec().makeCons(1,1,null,null)[0];
+            train.add("weights", weights);
+            DKV.put(train);
+            String response = "CAPSULE";
+            train.toCategoricalCol(response);
+            Scope.track(train);
+
+            AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters p = new AdaBoostModel.AdaBoostParameters();
+            p._train = train._key;
+            p._seed = 0xDECAF;
+            p._n_estimators = 10;
+            p._response_column = response;
+            p._ignore_const_cols = false;
+
+            AdaBoost adaBoost = new AdaBoost(p);
+            AdaBoostModel adaBoostModel = adaBoost.trainModel().get();
+            Scope.track_generic(adaBoostModel);
+            assertNotNull(adaBoostModel);
+
+            // Check that output is identical
+            Frame score = adaBoostModel.score(train);
+            Scope.track(score);
+            assertTrue("Weights column should not be changed in the training", weights.isConst());
+        } finally {
+            Scope.exit();
+        }
+    }
 }