diff --git a/.ci/.lintr.R b/.ci/.lintr.R
index 263c28630a..6659efbc82 100644
--- a/.ci/.lintr.R
+++ b/.ci/.lintr.R
@@ -54,13 +54,11 @@ linters = c(dt_linters, all_linters(
   todo_comment_linter = NULL,
   # TODO(michaelchirico): Enforce these and re-activate them one-by-one.
   brace_linter = NULL,
-  condition_call_linter = NULL,
   fixed_regex_linter = NULL,
   if_not_else_linter = NULL,
   implicit_assignment_linter = NULL,
   implicit_integer_linter = NULL,
   keyword_quote_linter = NULL,
-  nzchar_linter = NULL,
   object_overwrite_linter = NULL,
   paren_body_linter = NULL,
   redundant_equals_linter = NULL,
@@ -98,6 +96,7 @@ exclusions = c(local({
       undesirable_operator_linter = Inf, # For ':::', possibly we could be more careful to only exclude ':::'.
       # TODO(michaelchirico): Enforce these and re-activate them one-by-one.
       comparison_negation_linter = Inf,
+      condition_call_linter = Inf,
       duplicate_argument_linter = Inf,
       equals_na_linter = Inf,
       missing_argument_linter = Inf,
diff --git a/inst/tests/benchmark.Rraw b/inst/tests/benchmark.Rraw
index 2a183453b7..957c297fa7 100644
--- a/inst/tests/benchmark.Rraw
+++ b/inst/tests/benchmark.Rraw
@@ -490,7 +490,7 @@ out = capture.output(print(DT))
 tt = out[grep("V",out)]
 tt = unlist(strsplit(gsub(" ","",tt), "V"))
 test(1982.1, tt[1L], "")
-tt = as.integer(tt[tt!=""])
+tt = as.integer(tt[nzchar(tt)])
 test(1982.2, tt, seq_along(tt))
 
 # fread leak, #3292
diff --git a/inst/tests/other.Rraw b/inst/tests/other.Rraw
index 72d9c89756..80066b304d 100644
--- a/inst/tests/other.Rraw
+++ b/inst/tests/other.Rraw
@@ -408,7 +408,7 @@ if (loaded[["yaml"]]) {  # csvy; #1701. Was 2032-2033 in tests.Rraw, #5516
   fwrite(DT, f<-tempfile(), bom=TRUE, yaml=TRUE)
   fcon = file(f, encoding="UTF-8")  # Windows readLines needs to be told; see also test 1658.50 in tests.Rraw
   lines = readLines(fcon)
-  lines = lines[lines!=""]  # an extra "" after "eol: |2+" (line 16) on Linux but not Windows
+  lines = lines[nzchar(lines)]  # an extra "" after "eol: |2+" (line 16) on Linux but not Windows
                             # remove the blank here so we don't need to change this test if/when that changes in yaml package
   test(17.11, length(lines), 48L)
   close(fcon)
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ if (loaded[["yaml"]]) {  # csvy; #1701. Was 2032-2033 in tests.Rraw, #5516
   fwrite(DT, f<-tempfile(), bom=TRUE, yaml=TRUE)
   fcon = file(f, encoding="UTF-8")
   lines = readLines(fcon)
-  lines = lines[lines!=""]
+  lines = lines[nzchar(lines)]
   test(17.13, length(lines), 48L)
   close(fcon)
   test(17.14, fread(f), DT)