diff --git a/lib/internal/streams/writable.js b/lib/internal/streams/writable.js
index f75d2ac5dc7015..8bf967e556bf80 100644
--- a/lib/internal/streams/writable.js
+++ b/lib/internal/streams/writable.js
@@ -445,16 +445,17 @@ function _write(stream, chunk, encoding, cb) {
 
   if (typeof encoding === 'function') {
     cb = encoding;
-    encoding = (state[kState] & kDefaultUTF8Encoding) !== 0 ? 'utf8' : state.defaultEncoding;
-  } else {
-    if (!encoding)
-      encoding = (state[kState] & kDefaultUTF8Encoding) !== 0 ? 'utf8' : state.defaultEncoding;
-    else if (encoding !== 'buffer' && !Buffer.isEncoding(encoding))
-      throw new ERR_UNKNOWN_ENCODING(encoding);
-    if (typeof cb !== 'function')
-      cb = nop;
+    encoding = null;
   }
 
+  if (!encoding)
+    encoding = (state[kState] & kDefaultUTF8Encoding) !== 0 ? 'utf8' : state[kDefaultEncodingValue];
+  else if (encoding !== 'buffer' && !Buffer.isEncoding(encoding))
+    throw new ERR_UNKNOWN_ENCODING(encoding);
+
+  if (cb == null || typeof cb !== 'function')
+    cb = nop;
+
   if (chunk === null) {
     throw new ERR_STREAM_NULL_VALUES();
   } else if ((state[kState] & kObjectMode) === 0) {