I've been using this for a couple months now and it's great. It's my first vacuum powered desoldering device so I can't directly compare it to anything, but it does the job and does it well. It heats up quickly, has strong vacuum and pulls away the solder easily.Update: May 2019I've been using this de-soldering station for just about a year now and I'm still very happy with it. I've probably collectively removed about half a pound of solder with it. I haven't exactly been treating it with kit gloves either. (Honestly I've been much harder on it than I should). There were a couple of spots where I let it go too long before cleaning the catch tube and allowed the filter pad to clog, and a couple of mishaps where the shaft was clogged at the catch tube with skunky half-century old solder because I didn't swab it out with the provided cleaning rods in time - this is really my fault. The shaft can't (and shouldn't) get hot enough to melt solder at the catch tube end, but its entirely fixable. If this happens to you just shut the gun off, remove the catch tube, push one of the cleaning rods into the shaft and press while you heat the catch tube end with another soldering iron - after a few seconds the stuck solder should loosen and push out the old solder.Replacement tips and filter pads have been easy to get.After a year the gun still heats up quickly, the vacuum is still strong (despite the fact that I allowed it to get clogged numerous times). It DOES get clogged sometimes but not if you make a point to clean the catch tube after heavy use and use the cleaning rods each time before you put the gun back in its holder.