Disclosed is a valve control circuit for fuel burners and the like. Energy is received by an energy storage circuit and periodically is rapidly removed therefrom and transferred to a pulse circuit. The pulse circuit, responsive only to pulses, receives the energy pulses on discharge and provides a valve activating signal in response thereto. The system is failsafe inasmuch as component failure prevents the pulses from being supplied to the pulse circuit. Furthermore, limit apparatus prevents sufficient power from being directly supplied from the power source to the valve to cause actuation. Two timers are also provided to cause system lock out in the event of failure to ignite. Either timer is sufficient by itself to cause lock out so that if one of the timers fails, lock out is still achieved.