there are three bathrooms and one kitchen Light switch (total of 4 switches) that turn on the lights, and also start a Circulation pump for the hot water system. the intent is that the hot water circulates from the end of the "header" and back to the storage tank.
one of the switches has failed and when removing from the box, it looks like a 4 way switch with 2 "regular" wires and 2 "thermostat wires". there are relays in the utility that im pretty sure look after the circulation pump regardless of which Light is activated.
do i need to open each location to determine which switches are 4 way and which are 3 way ?
i took the old switch to Eecol Electric and the replacement switch they offered has the 4 contacts but the gold/black colors do not match ?
Electrical – switch for light also turns on a circulation pump – looks like a 4-way switch – has failed
electricalmultiway-switch
Related Solutions
What you're after requires a whole new wire to the fan: You currently have a single hot wire going to the fan, that supplies power to both the light and fan. You want to be able to split that out, so you'll need an additional hot feed, one for the fan, one for the light. So leave the three way switches as they are and get a qualified electrician to install a new 14/2 conductor from one of the switchboxes up to the light fixture.
You'll either need to install a double switch or expand the switchbox in order to make room for the third switch.
A 3 way switch is typically wired with 3 conductors plus ground. Ground and return are never interrupted by the switches. Hot is fed into the first switch which then energizes one or the other of the two remaining wires (travelers). The other switch then determines which traveler is connected to the fixture. If the light is off, the switches are set to different travelers (first switch energizes traveler 1, second connects fixture to traveler 2). Flipping either switch turns the fixture on by setting both switches to the same traveler. 
You need to pull a constant hot for the standard switch, so you need to source that from either a different line (may have to be same breaker for code) or from the beginning of the 3-way switch setup, before the travelers.
Related Topic
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Best Answer
This sounds like it would use a double pole single throw switch. Each side of the switch would be electrically separate, but they physically turn on and off together. The relay probably just turns on the pump when any of the switches are on. If this were some sort of 4 way setup, turning the light on in two rooms would turn off the pump.
You can test that your new switch is a double pole single throw switch with a continuity tester. All four contacts would be isolated from each other when the switch is in the off position. When the switch is in the on position, you'd have two separate pairs of contacts (probably the one pair on either side of the switch) that have been connected, but there would still be electrical isolation between the pairs. If you want to be extra sure that this is correct, take out one of your existing working switches and confirm that it behaves this way as well.