If you're into electronics sooner or later you will need to desolder something. Also, if you don't have the proper tools or skills you'll damage a component or two or even the PCB. Been there done that – desoldering braid, cheap one-shot mechanical pumps, running the soldering iron from one pin to another … until one day I decided to look for a good professional desoldering tool. First I purchased an all-in-one system that among the soldering iron and hot air, had a desoldering funtion. The pump was in the main unit and the desoldering iron was connected by a rubber tube. As it turns out these units have a typical design flaw – because the pump is so far away from the desoldering iron tip the suction is somewhat weak. Keep in mind that air is flexible so the longer the tube the more pressure is lost along the way. So if you're buying such a unit make sure the pump is really strong and has a gauge that will allow you to monitor the pressure. That unit has been returned and I am not even going to mention its name ! Then I came across Hakko 808 and until this day this is one of my favorite tools in my workshop. The suction power of this tool is amazing, easy to handle , heats up quickly , not very expensive. It requires regular maintenance (it's almost like a pet), but if you take care of it you'll save hours of work and many components and PCBs. Here is an example of what it can do, I received this LiPo charger with some terminal headers that I wanted to replace with different ones:
