4 way switch with only two switches

Question

I just bought a 3-way dimmer switch for the kitchen. There are only two switches that switch the overhead lights. I went to take off one of them to install the dimmer and the switch had 5 wires (2 red, 2 black and a ground) hooked up to it. That would imply to me that it's a 4-way switch, but there's only two switches. What gives?

EDIT

I solved the mystery. There was a 3rd switch that was hidden behind a wine rack. The electrician that installed stuff in my house must haven been on crack when he put stuff in (My brother-in-law who is an electrician said "He must have been a real @#%#% because there's no reason your wiring should be laid out like this"). The electrician put in 3 separate gang boxes (not a 3-gang box, 3 separate boxes) for switches - one above, one below and one two studs over. Honestly I'm surprised that it passes code because it controls the over head lights to the room.

Answer 1

That IS a 4-way switch which means you do have two other 3-ways. The wiring you have can't mean anything else.

A standard 3-way dimmer cannot be placed in this location.

Answer 2

As Speedy said, your wiring is indeed characteristic of a four-way switch. Four-way dimmers are not a COTS item; however, you can put a dimmer there with the help of a 3-position, 2-pole (DPDT) wall switch such as this Hubbell-Bryant 4825I, mounted in a dual gang box and wired as in the following diagram (travelers are black and red, grounds are green, neutrals are gray, and in-box jumpers are blue, but you can use any color for those save for white, gray, or green:

Do be forewarned though that the results of this aren't quite the same as a regular four-way switch: in particular, if you flip the switch fully at this location, you won't be able to turn it on at one end without flipping the switch at the other end as well. (I might come up with a better answer -- but it'll take me a while to fiddle with things, and 4PDT wall switches aren't a thing, either -- can you use a suitably rated electronics-type toggle switch in mains wiring?)

Answer 3

While the partial solution in my earlier answer does provide at least some dimming functionality at a four-way location without replacing the switches at all locations with multi-way communicating dimmers and matching companion devices, it is possible to construct a true four-way dimmer from a single-pole, three-wire (switched/dimmed hot) dimmer and 3 SPDT relays.

However, this requires:

• A single-pole, three-wire dimmer such as the Lutron Skylark SF-10P
• A dual SPDT relay such as the Functional Devices RIBU2C
• A single SPDT relay such as the Functional Devices RIBU1C
• The presence of a neutral (grounded) conductor in the switch box -- if there is no neutral, do not proceed with this approach
• A 1/2" and a 3/4" conduit knockout in the box or extensions thereof
• and a whopping 61 in3 of box space, worst case -- this will require either the replacement of an existing single gang box with a square box and matching 2.125" deep extension box or the use of 2 extra gangs of masonry-type or device-type box atop what's needed for the existing devices.