I will often get out a regular, much larger plug in soldering iron for the initial desoldering. The cheap, but large ~$20 ones you can pick up most places that have no temp control. That larger iron combined with those pen shaped spring solder sucker will give the heat needed to get off lots of solder.
I will only use the smaller, nicer soldering station for soldering components back onto the board.
But if you want to spend the money a Hakko 808 is a great choice.