diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
index 1ebf9aee90..24af1aa4f7 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
@@ -346,9 +346,9 @@ class FlowSplitter(object):
         body = self.get_body(root)
         if body is None:
             return False
-        txt = re.sub(r'\s+', '',
+        txt = re.sub(ur'\s+|\xa0', '',
                 etree.tostring(body, method='text', encoding=unicode))
-        if len(txt) > 4:
+        if len(txt) > 1:
             return False
         for img in root.xpath('//h:img', namespaces=NAMESPACES):
             if img.get('style', '') != 'display:none':