diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/serialization/ObjectEncoder.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/serialization/ObjectEncoder.java
index 8e7541ca7e..616a6c49fe 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/serialization/ObjectEncoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/serialization/ObjectEncoder.java
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ public class ObjectEncoder implements ChannelDownstreamHandler {
     }
 
     public ObjectEncoder(int estimatedLength) {
-        if (estimatedLength <= 0) {
+        if (estimatedLength < 0) {
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                     "estimatedLength: " + estimatedLength);
         }