We report a study on the main features of a 1.48-mum pumped erbium-doped fiber laser, such as threshold pump power, output power, and slope efficiency. In particular we have focused on its dependence on active fiber length. We employed an all-fiber laser configuration, which included mirrors directly coated onto the polished fiber endfaces. Launched pump power and laser output power were introduced and extracted, respectively, from the laser cavity by means of couplers. Our measure ments show the existence of an optimum erbium-doped fiber length, where threshold power reaches minimum and output power maximum.