adding a second fridge (need to get my one fridge going first!), but your write up gives a good idea of what's involved in having two of them. More complexity, certainly, but do-able, it sounds like, if you're willing to live with the power generation requirements.

Certainly pretty cool to be able to have ice cream on board!

I think in our case, we haven't learned yet how to really live fridge-less, although we did more or less while going to Alaska and back this spring/summer (always had 'finish fridge hook up' on the project list...never got around to it; the pretty cold bilge from the cold water worked very well for food storage), and I can see how doing so would be a big benefit esp. on a small-ish (33') boat. That being said, I can easily see wanting to have two fridges later on, with a bigger boat, or at least one bigger fridge. Especially in the tropics.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to our current fridge is its size and location --doesn't seem to be able to store much, and it's not terribly convenient to access. Hence my asking about your set up, out of curiosity...perhaps a two-fridge large boat is in my far-off coastal cruising future ;-)

In the meantime, though, the Engel fridge discussed above gives me an idea...like others have mentioned, I might figure out a way to bring aboard and strap-down/install an Engel type portable low-draw fridge/freezer when needed, and not as a permanent/built-in boat fixture. I had initially considered one when looking at fridges, and can now see how having one of those, with very low power draw, would be handy on an extended cruise with our limited power generation capabilities (and use our 'real' built-in NovaKool fridge only for local/short-distance/summer vacation cruising, when we wouldn't mind running the engine occasionally to charge the batts).