I hate to be a 'wet blanket,' eatsOats, but I would caution anyone in the strongest terms to avoid sharpeners like the Accusharp! They will indeed put a servicable edge on almost any knife in very short order but they're horrible for the knife! Knife guys call them "rippers" because that's how they sharpen- they scrape/rip all the steel off that doesn't fit thru the blades. The process takes off an awful lot of steel, cutting the life of the blade dramatically. And if you use them for a long time they'll really chew up the edge. Don't believe me? Look at your edges under magnification (microscope of jewelers louple)- the blade will almost look serrated. The knife will cut aggressively but not cleanly, it's really tearing thru the material you're cutting.
Nearly every restaurant I've ever worked in has one of those, sadly. Most restaurants use very cheap knives made of relatively soft steel; primarily this is due to cost. It would cost a lot of money to outfit the place with all top quality German or Japanese steel! And it would just get ruined and/or stolen anyways. Also, most hourly cooks (and a good many executive chefs!) know next to nothing about sharpening a knife. For them, a soft blade and a carbide ripper will work well. No matter that the knives won't last as long, they're essentially disposable anyway.
Look at a knife that was sharpened with nothing but an AccuSharp sometime. Case in point- my brother has an old 10" chef knife branded by Edward Don that was used for over a decade in a restaurant. It was never sharpened on anything but an AccuSharp. I took it to my place to sharpen for him and was horrified- the edge was a chipped up mess. It took me 20 minutes of working with a 120 grit waterstone to grind the bevel into usable shape!
As you noted, eventually the AccuSharp will wear out. The cutting blades are tungsten carbide, extremely hard but not invulnerable. If running water over years can carve stone, then obviously running 52 Rockwell knives thru them will eventually wear them down. Obviously you could buy another one, but I really hope you don't!
If you must use one, at least use it with very light pressure. And restrict it to your cheaper, softer knives.
If you want something extremely easy to use that will give you good results without chewing up your knives, I suggest an
Edgemaker Pro. It utilizes aluminum oxide coated rods iirc but removes far less metal. A set of all 4 grits will cost you $30, and individual ones are about $10 ea. For $25 you can get the 3 grits most commonly used. I have half a dozen of them and keep a couple in the knife roll I take to work with me; I've used them to put a good edge on at least a couple hunded knives. As for durability...my dad has used one for 20 years and it still sharpens!