I sharpened a small knife to help my grandson yesterday. He was curious about the sharpening procedure and anxious to get moving with his project. I left the Tormek with the grinding wheel in the water until I could return "quite shortly". "Quite shortly" turned out to be eight hours later.
Leaving a Tormek grinding wheel unattended in water for eight hours does absolutely no damage, not even for an anal retentive type like me. What bothered me about the incident was that I did not think to lower the tray. (I was using the T8 with the water trough lift. With other models, simply removing the water trough would have accomplished the same thing.) There is room for improvement with my routine.
On the positive side, I routinely feel the moving stone for coarseness/smoothness when using the stone grader. My grandson saw me doing this and did the same. His curiosity wanted to feel the grinding wheel. I was pleased with his interest, although his primary focus was his project.
Ken
ps During cleaning I look for spilled water. This was a very short session, however, no water was spilled.