I agree... Hakko's are definitely the way to go these days. Mind you, I like the old Royel's better, but they don't exist anymore, and you can't get parts for them.
I have a portable desoldering gun I take with me when I'm out servicing machines... a DIC SC7000Z. It's not a bad unit, but does have it's troubles. At least it works well enough to remove the odd chip or transistor here and there without any causing damage.
EDIT: Didn't realise the one you got was a portable one! I've only used the Hakko bench versions.
