Goldlexus wrote:

Last night we noticed the Ice-cream from the freezer was soft. In
further inspection we found the bread, OJ and few other things in the
freezer also soft. The ice in the ice maker was also sticking
together.

All the cooling comes from the freezer, so if it's warming up, the
refrigerator side is probably too warm. A refrigerator thermometer
makes it a lot easier to see how cold it really is.

The Freezer door is getting pushed open when the refrigerator side
gets closed. So we push the freezer door closed but it doesn't seem
take much effort to open when we go to open it again.

That's not unusual, but usually not a problem.

I think the freezer itself is running fine. It is cold in there. We
have it set to the highest setting (9)(turned it up last night from 7)
and pushed the door closed last night before going to bed to see it
the ice-cream, bread and oj would freeze back up. They were still soft
this morning

Bad sign. It's not cooling enough. Years back, I had a GE side-by-side
that did the same thing, for no good reason. A repair place told me it
was common, and often due to leaks in the cooling system. I replaced
the GE, and that place spent a while trying unsuccessfully to repair it.

On another refrigerator, I've had the coils in the back of the freezer
choke with ice due to a thermostat failure, which required a full
defrost and a new thermostat.

Will a bad gasket cause the thawing of these items? Even after pushing
the door closed? What are some things we could do to 'test' it to make
sure it is a gasket problem? If the gasket is bad would we feel cool
air coming out from around the door? Cause we don't.

It really doesn't sound like the gasket. Come to think of it, that GE
refrigerator also had a problem with the light switch, which wouldn't
turn off the light with the door closed. You could take out the bulb
and see.

The refrigerator is only 5 years old. We are hoping it is just a
gasket and not failing freezer.

I would say that if you've got 5 years of use out of a GE appliance,
you're doing better than average. Maybe just me.

--
Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA