Originally Posted by
mrtr33
:smiley50:
Think of your cigars as a sponge. They'll soak up the scents and odors of their surroundings. In a properly humidified and sealed humidor, they're surrounded by other cigars and spanish cedar, which does a great job of holding moisture without molding.
What you're risking with a musty-smelling basement is that scent being picked up by your cigars. Is it mold? Old moth balls? A decaying corpse? Whatever it is, although it may be slight, it could be slightly adversely affecting the taste of your cigars.
A coolerdor, while not usually aesthetically pleasing, provides a well-sealed solution. The basement provides a cooler location for the coolerdor (rather than, say, in a sunny window), and the cooler provides a sealed environment to keep outside smells and other environment undesirables from entering in.
I thought I remembered reading somewhere on here a step-by-step tutorial on setting up a coolerdor.....it's somewhere on here. I'm sure of it. :smiley2: