Never tried this but it looks so much more elegant than wick/solder suckers/desoldering pumps: https://youtu.be/Vou2xlJkuoU?si=vs-W2wuqbsoednVc&t=1342
The device just falls out onto the table. Engineer brand hand solder sucker works but I'm not great at it and have to painstakingly go over each pin to make sure they wiggle, otherwise add solder and try again, every pin must wiggle before taking the device out or it will damage the board.

I bought a desoldering station and love it, but it is not always as easy as it looks. It clogs often and especially if you are desoldering old components or lead free and oxidized solder. But it has made me more confident to take on bigger projects. I have seen some people using low-melt desolder alloy which is essentially sticks of Bismuth and Indium. They have a lower melting point than tin and lead and mixes with them causing the solder to stay liquid for longer and with colder temperatures. It seems really good for more sensitive and larger components.

If you often solder a specific type of case, and fundamentally do not want bottom heating and hot air.
There are these attachments, including DIP.

Don’t Over Heat.
Set your Iron and Heat gun to the Melting point of the Solder.
About 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
You want to melt the Solder and NOT burn and damage the Chips.

Solder outside or in a well ventilated location.

I use lots of Flux so apply Flux to the locations you want to solder for easy welding for a good bond.

When I reflow memory or chips to the PCB I use NO Clean Flux.
Just pour some on the locations you want to reflow and heat it up with heat gun.
Let the Flux do the job of repairing the broken welds.

Wash and Clean areas where you used Flux after you’re done.

Health and Safety First. So follow all instructions, directions, and recommendations.
You should wear glasses, face shield, protective clothing, and gloves.
Work in a Safe work space.

250°F won't even come close to melting solder (and neither will the kitchen ovens people were baking Nvidia graphics cards and laptop motherboards in to "reflow the solder"). Around 650°F or 350°C is typical, but sometimes you need a higher temperature just because cheap soldering stations don't have the best temperature control (mainly due to poor thermal conductivity between the heating element and tip).

I've just been desoldering with a solder sucker for all these years. The best ones are either the Edsyn, Engineer, or Vampire. I started with a "mini" Weller from the 1980s, but I couldn't find a replacement tip for it. A newer full-size Weller (Edsyn clone) didn't seem to work very well. I also keep solder wick around, but I don't like to use it very often. The problem is that the cheap solder wick doesn't work (thicker wire, loosely woven, pre-oxidized copper, and no flux), but since it's consumable, there's an incentive to buy cheap stuff. Chemtronics Soder-Wick is good.

I never clean flux off. I don't even add flux very often because the flux core in solder is enough for most stuff.

When I absolutely do not want to damage the PCB pads and traces, I'll use something like Chip Quik SMD 1 kit. It has a special solder that has a low melting point and stays molten for much longer than regular solder. SMD chips just slide off pads and DIPS just pull right out of the board when using this stuff.

First I remove as much of the original solder from the pins. Then I apply some of the special low-temp solder to all of the pins. Once all of the pins have the low-temp solder installed, I drag the solder iron tip gently across all of the pins to melt all of the solder; then while all pins are briefly still molten, the part can be easily removed. The flux included in the kit is pretty good stuff, I definitely use it during the process.

Just be sure to inspect the area for any of the low-temp solder that may have splashed away from your working area when finished.

hard_fault wrote on 2023-10-09, 00:52:

When I absolutely do not want to damage the PCB pads and traces, I'll use

clerical knife with a fresh blade.
The leads of the IC are carefully cut off, and then soldered off one at a time with one touch.

A small strip of aluminium can help at desoldering, too.
Just get a Cola can and cut it carefully. Fanta, Pepsi and Sprite cans do work, too. ;)

It's explained in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt3iCJ6mS6s

shevalier wrote on 2023-10-09, 04:02:

hard_fault wrote on 2023-10-09, 00:52:

When I absolutely do not want to damage the PCB pads and traces, I'll use

clerical knife with a fresh blade.
The leads of the IC are carefully cut off, and then soldered off one at a time with one touch.

I'm way too accident prone for that! Would use something like Plato 170 shears to cut the IC leads, better chance for me to complete the task with all 10 fingers still intact.
But yeah... that's not a bad method for SMD removal if you don't care about the chip you're removing [typically don't care]. Quicker. I like quick.
Although, I can see me slipping with the shears or blade, thus leaving a long scratch down the PCB. Been soldering for a living a long time, I've f-ed up in almost every way one can f things up, and this is one of those things I've done a few times.

My method is certainly not free of risk either, in fact one can easily get too happy with the low-temp solder stuff and end up with a big solder splash disaster all over the board, that re-engineers the circuit because difficulty in finding it all to clean up. So you have to learn how much to use after a few times using it.