Long story short in bullet form: -Fixtures and outlets in my basement weren't working -I found the breaker had tripped, so I reset it -Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days later it would trip again. Even with everything unplugged, and all lights turned off, the breaker would still trip -I would reset it again. -This proceeded for a few weeks -I opened the box up and found that there were 2 wires in my problem breaker. 1 controlled the outlets, 1 the fixtures. I split them up, leaving the fixtures in place and moving the outlets to a new breaker. -A few hours later, the breaker tripped again, shutting off power to the fixtures. -I flipped the wires, connecting the outlets to the problem breaker and moving the fixtures to a different breaker that hadn't been any trouble -Over a full week later, the new breaker (the one with the fixtures) tripped. No lights were on (to the best of my knowledge). -I reset the breaker, and it has not tripped again. All lights are working fine. Here are my conclusions, which are probably way off: 1. There is not a short, as the breaker trips only after remaining on for long periods of time 2. There is no problem with the outlets, as they by themselves have never caused the breaker to trip 3. There is a problem with the fixtures, as whatever breaker they are plugged into is the only one that trips 4. The problem is not an overload issue, as it seems to cause a trip whether or not anything is turned on 5. The problem is not too many or too high wattage lights, as again, the problem does not depend on power running to the lights. Any ideas? Thanks!

I recently bought a new, long, thick extension cord for working my leaf blower. I made sure to get one thick enough that I wouldn't lose amperage. Ive only used it 4-5 times, and last time I was using it, the cord started to smoke. I checked and the leaf blower plug was charred on one side, and the cord receptacle was blackened on that side too. I tried a different cord after cleaning the plug from the blower and it worked fine. So whats wrong with the outlet of the extension cord, and how do I clean/fix it?