diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CoalescedRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CoalescedRDD.scala
index 9c198a61f37af84919a247e04f4b96df0a7812c5..2cba1febe875914504ed179033308d72d0e6db55 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CoalescedRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CoalescedRDD.scala
@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@ private[spark] class CoalescedRDD[T: ClassTag](
 
   require(maxPartitions > 0 || maxPartitions == prev.partitions.length,
     s"Number of partitions ($maxPartitions) must be positive.")
+  if (partitionCoalescer.isDefined) {
+    require(partitionCoalescer.get.isInstanceOf[Serializable],
+      "The partition coalescer passed in must be serializable.")
+  }
 
   override def getPartitions: Array[Partition] = {
     val pc = partitionCoalescer.getOrElse(new DefaultPartitionCoalescer())
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
index be119578d2c3564c17711fbb70ccdc5e5843895c..db535de9e9bb34b446e35ff3107d284e5943d148 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
@@ -432,7 +432,8 @@ abstract class RDD[T: ClassTag](
    * of partitions. This is useful if you have a small number of partitions,
    * say 100, potentially with a few partitions being abnormally large. Calling
    * coalesce(1000, shuffle = true) will result in 1000 partitions with the
-   * data distributed using a hash partitioner.
+   * data distributed using a hash partitioner. The optional partition coalescer
+   * passed in must be serializable.
    */
   def coalesce(numPartitions: Int, shuffle: Boolean = false,
                partitionCoalescer: Option[PartitionCoalescer] = Option.empty)