This wasn't clear, and was easily misunderstood.  See my other posts to see.  The meaning of "it will fail to keep the valve open" is that if it fails, the valve will close.  That is clear in the other statements I made.  But there are other failures that the thermocouple has not control over, like a leak.

DMc

---- David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:
> At 08:39 AM 11/5/2010  -0500, Dave Mcneely wrote:
> >Sure, there is a thermocouple, and it works.  If it fails, most
> >likely it will fail to keep the valve at the flame open, rather than
> >the other way around.
>
> If the thermocouple fails the valve is guaranteed to close.  It's
> practically a miracle that it can hold the valve open at all.
>
> Yours,
> David
>

--
David McNeely