Is that the only thing you plugged into that outlet????? if so it may be the outlet have an certified electrician check it out. A short between the motor and the stator could cause it. take it a part see if you find any evidence of arching.

Other something broke off and shorted it and possible removing it or a chafed wire grounding out. I say it's junk throw it away and get another one and have that outlet checked out just to be sure it's not the outlet,

usually outside outlets have a fault circuit breaker in the loop somewhere like on hot tubs so you won't get zapped. It should of popped or tripped the circuit breaker on that run so the outlet should not have 120V right now unless you reset the circuit breaker on the master breaker box.

Thank you. Not sure I understood everything you said, but you got me to to go & check the outlet & I when I plugged a lamp into it, both sockets worked. It has one of those red buttons on it (fault curcuit breaker?), which had not turned off. Then I thought OK, I'll check the blower with another, newer extension cord & YEAH!, it's still working. So it must have been the cord. The new cord I have says 250 watts on it. Do you think that's powerful enough for the leaf blower?
Thanks again.
Miss Lemon

250 watts !!!????.....That's barely enough for a table lamp. You need to look at the wire gauge on an extension
cord. Depending on the length, you should get at least
a 14 gauge. Gauge is the diameter of the actual metal wire
itself, inside the cord. The smaller the number, the
larger the wire. Don't even attempt to run that blower
with that 250 watt cord!

I agree watts way to low rated cord, amps or watts is what you need to know. How much does the elect. blower pull. probably 1200 to 1600 watts atleast.
here a simple formula If i remember it correctly

1. amps X volts = watts.
2. Watts divided by volts = amps.
3. watts divided by amps = volts.

The blower should have one of these numbers on it. amps or watts.

I agree with ibpod at least a 14 gauge. the smaller the gauge the heavier elect. load it will carry.

Glade you found the problem the extension cord was probably too light duty to carry the amps, therefore it overheated melted the wire insulation off and shorted out when the two wires touched (this very same thing happens in old houses with old wiring techiques when a single wall outlet has several adapter cord pluged in, it only takes one on the line to pull too much amps and over heat the wiring in the walls an catch a house on fire (todays fault and trip cicuit breakers prevent this unless they malfunction.

Or it had a break in the insulation and the movement of the cord alowed it to ground out (bare wires touching) heat up very quickly and short out.

Every wonder why you hair dryer quits and pops the circuit breaker. hair dryers probably pull as much or more watts than that blower that's why the have a short cord.

I spent awhile trying to figure out the gauge. Out in the garage comparing them to the size of my drill bits with my bifocals on. Pretty funny. Y'all forgot to tell me the info was actually stamped into the cord. The 250 watt thing was not right....didn't have my glasses on.

The one that failed is a 25' footer & it says 14-3, so I'm assuming it's a 14 gauge which I found out will take 10 to 15 amps. The leaf blower is 12 amps. The newer cord is a 12 gauge so I won't use it.

The 14 gauge cord didn't have any obvious flaws that I could see, but who knows, I've had it awhile. If all I need to do is buy a new 16 gauge extension cord that's a lot cheaper than an electrician or a new leafblower.

I have spents many cold mornings cussing out my hair dryer as it continually shut off. Now I know why. Thanks for the help. Those sparks really scared me.

I think the smaller the number of gauge on the wire the more load it will carry. I try to remember it like in shotguns. the smaller the gauge the bigger the shell as in wiring the smaller the gauge the bigger the wire and the more load it will carry.

So your 12 gauge should out preform better than the 16 gauge unless the 12 is 100 foot and the 16 gauge is 5 foot????? Looking at my wire strippers a 16 guage wire is very small So IMO keep the 12 gauge cord. The smaller the gauge the bigger the wire size.

Next time you in the store look at a set of wire strippers pliers you can see the size of the wire through the cutting teeth of the strippers with the jaws closed

That cord that sparked had to have a break in the insulation or the wires to short out at the plug socket for that to shoot sparks, usually it's in the plug the wire work loose over time and bare ends touch IMO.

another thing the -3 stands for three wires. Hot, netural, and a ground. You want a -3 cord for the ground! reduced the chance of getting shocked Especially when things are damp if the circuit is grounded properly.