Aoyue 906 Hot Air Rework Station review
I've been lucky enough to use a Hakko 852 at work. It heats up quickly and accurately, gives you fine control over the air flow rate and has all sorts of temperature profiling magic. It's an elegant weapon for a more civilised time.
The Aoyue 906 is not an elegant weapon. Where the Hakko 852 is a perfect lightsaber, the Aoyue 906 is a wooden club in flourescent paint.
Aoyue 906 Hot Air Rework Station
Sure, it blows hot air. But your temperature control goes from "1" to "10", where "1" is "warms your hands" and "10" is "might melt solder if you let it heat up for a while". The air flow control goes from "lots" to "way too much".
I also bought the American version, which means that I have to haul around a 15kg isolation transformer to run it on my Australian power (which flows down the drain counter-clockwise).
But feel the price. Even with the isolation transformer, the Aoyue cost about a tenth of the Hakko. And it has a soldering iron.
So for us non-professionals who just want to cut things in half with invisible beams of hot air, the Aoyue is a good choice. Even if it does blow. (Hah!)