Upgrades in RAMPS 1.4.2?

When enquiring about the problem of the heater bed mosfet (Q3) overheating, I was told that this is being addressed in the new 1.4.2 boards. However, looking at the change list, I do not see any such change. The copper traces are being made thicker, but that's not the problem in this case.

This is obviously a well-known issue. So well-known in fact that the Bill of Materials section for RAMPS 1.4 lists two upgrade suggestions for Q3: "IRLB8743PBF (RDS=3.2mΩ On) or for even more current IRLB3034PBF (RDS=1.5mΩ On)." That's great information, but it's often difficult to know what manufacturers are doing, and I think it's unfortunate that the MOSFET isn't just changed in the spec. Is there some way that the community can facilitate both better quality boards, and knowing what components a given board uses?

To some extent this is a general issue that could apply to any component, but given that Q3 overheating is a well-known problem, in this case I would suggest that one solution could be defining, e.g., "RAMPS 1.4.2a" as having IRLB8743PBF at Q3, and "RAMPS 1.4.2b" as having IRLB3034PBF at Q3. Then everyone knows what they are buying, and the existence of an official spec encourages manufacturers to make the boards.

Personally, if they existed, there is no way I'd buy anything but 1.4.2b. Trying to save a dollar or two at the risk of frying the board and having not only to replace it, but more importantly, dealing with the downtime that causes, doesn't make any sense.

Do you believe manufacturers, who had build RAMPS for years, will look for updated BOM lists?
All they do is replace genuine parts ( like Phoenix Contact power plug ) with unbranded or reduce capacitor specs ( 16V vs 35V ) to save some $.

I guess that's a fair point.

Any soldering experts out there have pointers for how to upgrade the board myself? Desoldering those MOSFETS isn't easy because you have to get all 3 legs detached at once. I've seen it suggested to cut the top of the MOSFET off so you can remove the legs one at a time, but there's no room -- my wire cutters can't even come close to doing that without damaging nearby components.

If you grab the mosfet by its tab. and wiggle it back and forth a few times it will break off at the board level. Leaving just the legs which can be removed from the bottom of the board.

ramps 1.4.2 is not official by any means, its just what one group did..
And when it came out I recommend they upgrade their caps to 35v.. they ignored me.. so all 1.4.2 come with 16v caps