diff --git a/esphome/components/spi/spi_arduino.cpp b/esphome/components/spi/spi_arduino.cpp
index 14428bed629..ae2d2906edf 100644
--- a/esphome/components/spi/spi_arduino.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/spi/spi_arduino.cpp
@@ -44,16 +44,8 @@ class SPIDelegateHw : public SPIDelegate {
 #ifdef USE_RP2
     this->channel_->transfer(ptr, nullptr, length);
 #elif defined(USE_ESP8266)
-    // ESP8266 SPI library requires the pointer to be word aligned, but the data may not be
-    // so we need to copy the data to a temporary buffer
-    if (reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(ptr) & 0x3) {
-      ESP_LOGVV(TAG, "SPI write buffer not word aligned, copying to temporary buffer");
-      auto txbuf = std::vector<uint8_t>(length);
-      memcpy(txbuf.data(), ptr, length);
-      this->channel_->writeBytes(txbuf.data(), length);
-    } else {
-      this->channel_->writeBytes(ptr, length);
-    }
+    // writeBytes() needs a word aligned pointer; transferBytes() bounces unaligned chunks through a stack buffer
+    this->channel_->transferBytes(ptr, nullptr, length);
 #else
     this->channel_->writeBytes(ptr, length);
 #endif