To eliminate or not to eliminate safety valve?

[zanndee]

Ok, here’s the deal. I knew the stove had a safety valve that would lock out the flow of gas to the burners by pushing a button on the control panel when I bought it. Didn’t know this valve would also lock the flow of gas in an event of a power outage and that there was no way to override it (eliminating the #1 reason I had for getting a gas range to begin with!). 3yrs went by, no issues, but last week the control panel decided to go on the fritz and now no power is being applied to the solenoid that holds the valve open, so for over a week, the safety valve has been locked and the stove has been useless (oven works, yay!). I’m very hesitant to pay any amount of money in repairing this useless feature unless there’s a way I could manually override the safety lock in case of a power outage. I’ve been thinking of taking the safety valve out of the unit completely and replacing it with a piece of pipe the same length. Those of you out there that know about this things, is that a good idea? Should I just spend the money and replace the darn control panel and hope i don’t get snowed in this winter with no power? Should I just sell the range for parts and buy a cheaper one that has no safety valve? Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you!