diff --git a/server/base/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/server/metadata/iterators/SetEqualityIterator.java b/server/base/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/server/metadata/iterators/SetEqualityIterator.java
index a66368f58ad..1eeff202c4f 100644
--- a/server/base/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/server/metadata/iterators/SetEqualityIterator.java
+++ b/server/base/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/server/metadata/iterators/SetEqualityIterator.java
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
 import java.io.DataOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -88,7 +87,7 @@ public void seek(Range range, Collection<ByteSequence> columnFamilies, boolean i
           byte[] ba = source.getTopKey().getColumnQualifierData().toArray();
           byte[] valueData = source.getTopValue().get();
 
-          byte[] encodedData = encodeEntry(ba, valueData);
+          byte[] encodedData = encodeKeyValue(ba, valueData);
 
           dos.writeInt(encodedData.length);
           dos.write(encodedData, 0, encodedData.length);
@@ -210,24 +209,24 @@ public static <T> Condition createCondition(Collection<T> set, Function<T,byte[]
   }
 
   public static <K,T> Condition createCondition(Map<K,T> map,
-      Function<Map.Entry<K,T>,byte[]> entryEncoder, Text family) {
+      Function<Map.Entry<K,T>,Map.Entry<byte[],byte[]>> entryEncoder, Text family) {
     IteratorSetting is = new IteratorSetting(ConditionalTabletMutatorImpl.INITIAL_ITERATOR_PRIO,
         SetEqualityIterator.class);
     is.addOption(ENCODE_VALUE_OPTION, "true");
-
     Function<Map.Entry<K,T>,byte[]> encoder = entry -> {
-      T value = entry.getValue();
-      byte[] keyData = entryEncoder.apply(entry);
-      byte[] valueData = value instanceof byte[] ? (byte[]) value
-          : value.toString().getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
-      return encodeEntry(keyData, valueData);
-    };
+      Map.Entry<byte[],byte[]> byteEntry = entryEncoder.apply(entry);
 
+      return encodeKeyValue(byteEntry.getKey(), byteEntry.getValue());
+    };
     return new Condition(family, EMPTY).setValue(encode(map.entrySet(), encoder)).setIterators(is);
   }
 
-  private static byte[] encodeEntry(byte[] keyData, byte[] valueData) {
-    return ByteUtils.concat(ByteUtils.escape(keyData), ByteUtils.escape(valueData));
-
+  private static byte[] encodeKeyValue(byte[] key, byte[] value) {
+    return ByteUtils.concat(ByteUtils.escape(key), ByteUtils.escape(value));
   }
+
+  // private static byte[] encodeEntry(Map.Entry<byte[],byte[]> bytesEntry) {
+  // return ByteUtils.concat(ByteUtils.escape(bytesEntry.getKey()),
+  // ByteUtils.escape(bytesEntry.getValue()));
+  // }
 }