Yes it is safe. It is one of the advantages of gas that gets cited in every discussion of the merits/downsides of induction or other electric stoves. Every GE-made stove's manual will say something like this: "In case of a power failure, you can light the surface burners on your range with a match. Hold a lighted match to the burner, then turn the knob to the LITE position." Personally, I prefer to use a BBQ lighter, but I've lit a burner with a match when I had to. Did you toss the manual when you bought the stove? Maybe it came with the house? Do a search. The manual should be avalaible as a pdf download. By the way, RGB745 sounds like the model number for a Hotpoint stove (GE sub-brand). A GE Profile will have a model number that will look something like JGB915 or J2B910. Good luck with the storm.

Thanks for the several useful comments on this. Unfortunately I have been canning so long that I am still using my old-style (40+ years old) aluminum canners that require constant watching and heat adjustment (pressure gauge with hissy/vent models, not really "jiggle" like the modern ones, I misspoke in my first post) during processing to maintain correct pressure throughout the cycle. These are, even with gas, a royal pain and I have been thinking about replacing them. My modern pressure pans that are in effect self-stabilizing as far as pressure -they are true "jigglers" - are much easier to use. The main thing keeping me from replacing all the old pressure canners is financial inertia and reluctance to abandon these huge kettles which still technically work just fine. (I use them not only for pressure but also BWB with the lids off and many, many jars stacked up inside.) I fuss about this every year during the canning season, then, of course, it fades away afterward. I should just bite the bullet, I suppose. My worry about the heat plate set-up is that it would be like trying to run them on an electric coil: not feasible (or at least extremely frustrating and lead to poor quality control) because of the residual heat in the coil (in this case heat plate) itself. And unlike smaller pots there's no moving aside a canner packed with 3 or 4 dozen jars of food to the side to try and temper the heat. Working outside does sound appealing, but I would be a little reluctant to do so because I really like having my kitchen set up for canning with ready access to water, etc. If I set up an indoor canning room in an outbuilding, that would be ideal and I have seen some people with that setup and admired it. I often prep/process batches of food in the evening or at night and working outdoors would draw a lot of flying critters to the lights. I am fiercely obssessive about sanitation during prep so it would stress me out in the open air, I think. I do plan to have an outside exit from my kitchen to a small porch ... I am just now thinking maybe it should be a screened small porch that could be set up for canning during the main rush of the season. I'd have water close at hand in the kitch. Hmmmmmm The timing/safety issue comes to play if it takes takes too long, or too conversely it happens too quickly, to get to pressure. At extremes of either end you have issues of safety and to some degree food quality (very long time to get to pressure). This is one of the reasons that using a regular pressure pan (especially a smaller one) is not advisable for pressure canning. This is slightly OT, but have I read here a method for converting older style canners to more easier use by switching to a different weighted gauge? Maybe I am confusing this with something else? I appreciate the time you have taken to write your comments; it's very helpful to me. Canning, especially pressure canning, is foreign to a lot folks and they haven't got any idea how and why it is different from regular cooking. L

maire_cate and Wekick Thanks both. I think I've watched Trevor's video before. the simplicity of the BS is very similar to my Russell range except everything in the Russell is stainless. (which I do like) I'm not terribly concerned about service as there is little that can go wrong. Having a high BTU kiln I'm used to taking he venturis apart and cleaning the burners. So I'm comfortable working with burners, cleaning adjusting. Unfortunately, there is no BS dealer close. I've watched all of the BS videos to ad nauseam drove to Las Vegas some months ago as I was told I could see one and try it out. They had a range which I would think is similar to a range top. They knew nothing about it. It was not live, disappointing to make a 5.5 hr trip for nothing. Next closest is Salt Lake city a 8- 9 hour round trip. Maybe when I get close to actually buying I'll make the trip and spend the night.. Trevor wrote his phone number on one of my posts suggesting I call him. Haven't done it yet and of course the paper I had has disappeared from my desk. Sales person also told me how wonderful Wolf ovens were. Yikes, I remember reading about your pain Wekick. When I mentioned the blue enamel chipping there was just a blank stare. I told him I plan on getting the GE French door wall oven as I have one in the FL house and like it. . When I asked if he can give me a deal on SZ (side by side and wine cooler) if I buy all of my appliances he said no they are sold at full price unless I purchse a suite of SZ/Wolf, which isn't going to happen.::(( There is a Ferguson in town as well. I don't think their set up is nearly as large but will head there one of these days. The only thing I'm still on the fence about is the dishwasher. Do I get another Bosch which cleans really well but doesn't load very well with my handmade dishes. Maybe by the time I actually get to remodel, Bosch will have improved their interior set up...I'm hoping. Inga

I'm impressed that somebody bothered to read all the safety warnings. There are so many warnings and cautions that run at such length in any appliance manual that the important ones get lost in the haze of verbiage. I suspect that the reason for all that verbiage is an attempt to fend off the Dunning-Kruger Effect. (That is an actual technical term of social science art. It describes going beyond being too ignorant and/or too stupid to recognize your limitations while assuming a state of being so much smarter than others that you can do whatever you want.) Seems to me that, for the things that engineers can't come up with a way to stupid proof, then we get corporate lawyers trying to add written warnings against the all the specific kinds of stupid behavior they or engineers have heard of. The result is pages of verbal fog so dense and so long that you can't get most people (let alone the willfully stupid) to read them. Now, for the specific question about whether, despite the safety instruction, you can manually light surface burners on the latest models of Bluestar ranges, you need to see whether or not the wiring diagram shows a safety valve wired onto the surface burners' gas line like that for the oven burners' glow-bar igniters. The wiring diagram does not seem readily available on-line but maybe some of the folks here with Bluestar RCS304BV2 ranges will help out by looking at the wiring diagram on the backs of their stoves. Or, Bongo, if the dealer showroom is convenient, maybe you can look at one on a stove at the showroom? If the wiring diagram doesn't show such a safety interlock, I'm guessing that Prizer-Painter is only saying "don't" in the manual because (a) its engineers have not yet figured out an easy and economical way to retrofit an interlock and (b) the consumer products regulators have not yet seen a big enough need to require stupid-proofing hardware for this although (c) some people have complained about burns when they held very short paper matches over the top of a burner cranked all the way to max gas flow. That may change if people start immolating themselves the way they did when they ignored Blue Star's manual's explicit statements to leave the convection fan off when broiling and/or before the bake burner ignited for preheating. IIRC, the reports of serious injuries to those who disregarded the instructions had risen to to fifty or sixty incidents when the US and Canadian consumer products agencies jointly issued the recall notice to Blue Star.