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I have a stacked (dual) 3-way switch controlling lighting in my home. The lights are on separate panel circuits, one for the foyer and one for the 2nd floor. The switch that is in the box (2-gang, no room to expand) has completely separate control terminals (hot, traveler, common and ground) for each switch, so 2 sets of 4.

I'm replacing the controls in that box and the surrounding area with decora switches, but I can't find any stacked 3-way switches that don't share at least a portion of those terminals. Obviously I'm ok with sharing the ground, but the common and hot have to be separate terminals or I'll be merging two circuits on the panel and that is capital-B Bad.

Does anyone have any advice for me on how to find what I'm looking for, or how to do what I want?

thanks

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  • I'd never seen stacked 3-ways before the preceding question about 3-way wiring. They seem to be uncommon, and may not be duplicated in a "styled" product line. I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer and asking them whether they offer such a thing... if not, you either have to change style (if you can find one that offers this), put in a second switch (which may mean a second box), or live with what you've got. – keshlam Nov 18 '14 at 16:35
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All duplex devices, receptacles, switches, combos, etc, have a small tab between the hot (and neutral if present) terminals. You certainly can take a duplex/stack/dual 3-way switch and isolate the two switches on the device. Just break the small tab between the gold screws.

See the small tab with the slot between the screws?

enter image description here

A 3-way/3-way version of this switch will have four black screws on the opposite side.

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  • Right, so the commonly found version of this product has only 3 terminals on the opposite side, sometimes labelled A1, A2 and B. I can't seem to find one with 4 real terminals. – MattCole3 Nov 19 '14 at 0:57
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    A SP/3-way duplex switch will have three terms on one side. A SP/SP will have two. A 3-way/3-way will have four. – Speedy Petey Nov 19 '14 at 18:43

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