How to Connect Capacitors in Series
- 1). Connect a lead of one capacitor to a lead of the other. For polarized capacitors, such as electrolytic capacitors, connect the positive lead of one capacitor to the negative lead of the other capacitor.
- 2). Add the reciprocals of the capacitance values to find the total capacitance, that is: Ctotal = 1/(1/C1 + 1/C2)
- 3). Switch your multimeter to the capacitance meter setting.
- 4). Connect each probe of the multimeter to a free lead of the combined capacitor. For polarized capacitors, connect the positive probe of the multimeter to the positive free lead of the combined capacitor. Connect the negative probe to the negative free lead. Verify that the combined capacitance is lower than that of the individual capacitors.