that's my desoldering tool now, the Radio Shack one. I picked it up on a whim a couple years ago, without having any particular knowledge of how to solder or having any major purpose for it.
it gets extremely hot, that's a mistake I made recently, I left it on for way too long. I didn't burn anything though. I'll keep that in mind from now on though (taking breaks)
couple things I've observed while using it, one particular job where I desoldered 2 IC sockets on Daytona USA (one to grab a donor socket off the game rom board, another to desolder the broken one) I used some leftover liquid flux from a ChipQuik kit I bought, and boy did that make desoldering those sockets 10x easier.
I've nuked ticket dispenser boards with it, they're just too tiny and fine, but I've done far worse damage with the combination of a Shack desoldering pump (the plastic blue one that you have to use a soldering iron to heat up the solder) and my 25 watt Weller iron than I ever did with the desoldering iron.
it becomes problematic on larger pinned items, because the pin blocks the air flow suckage, lol.
best way to get cleaner holes is to cup the tip around the pin, heat the solder, and wiggle the pin around in the hole... all in a split second of course. there's nothing more pleasing than to have a totally clean solder pad after using this tool!