Other folks have expressed their opinions of Hakko desoldering equipment,
and I agree with them. They do require a fair amount of maintenance and
care but they do the job better than just about anything else. I've seen
complete pistol-grip versions (where the pump is located inside the gun
itself) on sale at bigger electronics stores such as Fry's for a couple of
hundred bucks, but that includes extra items such as filters and cleaning
plungers.

The problem, though, is replacing the tip. It will wear out with use and it
can sometimes be difficult to find a replacement if the store you bought the
gun from doesn't stock them. Perhaps they can order them.... tips come in
different sizes. There are a couple of other items deep inside the pistol
grip assembly that will require replacement at some point, and you'd better
make careful notes of exactly which parts go where. Fortunately, the
instructions are quite detailed and provide part numbers.

I have never been a fan of those dinky Radio Shack red-bulb desolderers.
All they do is clog up and frustrate you. For a small amount of work, you
can use a soldering iron and desoldering braid, but the braid gets very hot
and you don't want to burn your fingers. The downside is that it can take
so long to heat up the solder that the components might get damaged.

I have heard one method of brute-force desoldering that involves a
blowtorch, so you melt the whole board's solder joints all at once and knock
the board down into a trash can to trap all the parts that come loose. I
have not tried this myself, though, and cannot vouch for how well it works.