diff --git a/linkcheck/checker/__init__.py b/linkcheck/checker/__init__.py
index cccaf1cf..ffe19d99 100644
--- a/linkcheck/checker/__init__.py
+++ b/linkcheck/checker/__init__.py
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ acap        # application configuration access protocol
 
 ignored_schemes_re = re.compile(ignored_schemes, re.VERBOSE)
 
-_encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding()
+_encoding = linkcheck.i18n.default_encoding
 stderr = codecs.getwriter(_encoding)(sys.stderr, errors="ignore")
 
 def internal_error ():
diff --git a/linkcheck/ftests/__init__.py b/linkcheck/ftests/__init__.py
index 920609a5..73372678 100644
--- a/linkcheck/ftests/__init__.py
+++ b/linkcheck/ftests/__init__.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ class StandardTest (unittest.TestCase):
         """
         resultfile = self.get_file(filename+".result")
         d = {'curdir': os.getcwd()}
-        f = codecs.open(resultfile, "r", "iso8859-1")
+        f = codecs.open(resultfile, "r", linkcheck.i18n.default_encoding)
         resultlines = [line.rstrip('\r\n') % d for line in f \
                        if line.strip() and not line.startswith(u'#')]
         f.close()
diff --git a/linkcheck/i18n.py b/linkcheck/i18n.py
index 1298f0d0..21e241e5 100644
--- a/linkcheck/i18n.py
+++ b/linkcheck/i18n.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import gettext
 # more supported languages are added in init()
 supported_languages = ['en']
 default_language = 'en'
+default_encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding()
 
 def install_builtin (translator, do_unicode):
     """
diff --git a/linkcheck/logger/__init__.py b/linkcheck/logger/__init__.py
index 0662343d..f180dceb 100644
--- a/linkcheck/logger/__init__.py
+++ b/linkcheck/logger/__init__.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import os
 import datetime
 
 import linkcheck.strformat
+import linkcheck.i18n
 
 _ = lambda x: x
 Fields = dict(
@@ -69,8 +70,8 @@ class Logger (object):
         # number of encountered warningss
         self.warnings = 0
         # encoding of output
-        preferred = locale.getpreferredencoding()
-        self.output_encoding = args.get("encoding", preferred)
+        default = linkcheck.i18n.default_encoding
+        self.output_encoding = args.get("encoding", default)
 
     def init_fileoutput (self, args):
         """
diff --git a/linkchecker b/linkchecker
index a021145e..f8fa2af6 100755
--- a/linkchecker
+++ b/linkchecker
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ import linkcheck
 optparse._ = _
 # now import the rest of the linkchecker gang
 import linkcheck.log
+import linkcheck.i18n
 import linkcheck.checker
 import linkcheck.checker.cache
 import linkcheck.checker.consumer
@@ -301,8 +302,7 @@ class LCOptionParser (optparse.OptionParser, object):
         s = u"%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n%s\n%s" % (self.format_help(),
                  Examples, LoggerTypes, RegularExpressions,
                  ProxySupport, Notes, Retval, Warnings)
-        encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding()
-        s = s.encode(encoding, "replace")
+        s = s.encode(linkcheck.i18n.default_encoding, "replace")
         if os.name != 'posix':
             linkcheck.strformat.paginate(s)
         else:
@@ -541,7 +541,7 @@ if options.output:
     if "/" in options.output:
         logtype, encoding = options.output.split("/", 1)
     else:
-        logtype, encoding = options.output, "iso-8859-15"
+        logtype, encoding = options.output, linkcheck.i18n.default_encoding
     if not linkcheck.Loggers.has_key(logtype.lower()):
         print_usage(_("Unknown logger type %r in %r for option %s") % \
                    (logtype, options.output, "'-o, --output'"))