The pilot on my powermiser 9 starting going out fairly regularly about 3 months ago. I pulled the pilot assy and noticed that there was a thermal switch in series with thermocouple. . .it immediately became the chief suspect. I soldered a wire around the device and replaced the pilot assy. . .ran it for a couple of weeks. . .the pilot never shut off. Pulled the wire bypass and re-installed the pilot assy. Pilot shut off within 24hours. Decided that the thermal switch was faulty and tried (in vain) to order just the thermal switch. The device is obsolete and could not be obtained given the number on the switch itself. . .so. . .ordered another pilot assy from a 3rd party. Things were fine for awhile (about 2 months) until we had a house full of company (of course). Pilot light started going out again. Didn't mess around this time, pulled the assy and bypassed the thermal switch. Since then the pilot has remained lit. I think that this was a knee jerk reaction from Sears to comply with a safety concern. The device probably was a cheap fix that utilized a product that did not have the proper specifications for the circuit. I do not recommend my fix. . .it definitely inhibits the safety shutdown were there an actual over-temp within the burner chamber.