Sealed battery vs. Flooded battery

Looking for peoples experiences and opinions on the sealed battery vs flooded battery debate. I'm about ready to purchase the batteries for our system and our consultant is pushing us towards sealed but most of my research says to go with flooded. His pitch for sealed batteries is that their cost have come down drastically compared to years ago. FYI, I am procuring my own equipment. I am not buying anything through our consultant nor does he sale any products.

Thanks

I work for a govt agency. We ripped our our old, flooded batteries that we had been using for decades and replaced them with sealed batteries. Agency wide this was a big deal (we have thousands of remotes sites with battery backup, with up to a dozen batteries at each site). I figure some smooth talking contractor took some idiot in DC to lunch and talked him into buying the new batteries.

Now, a little wiser and some salesman a little richer, we are going back to the old batteries because the new batteries need to be replaced every few years. Properly maintained the old batteries lasted just this side of forever. The flooded batteries do need more maintenance (periodically check the fluid, top of with distilled water, check the charge, check your connections, etc). The sealed batteries are maintenance free, until you have to replace them, which is expensive $$$.

Your consultant may know something about you and your system requirements than we do.
Flooded batteries are 'Capable' of long service life. The system design/use, type of battery (industrial?$$) and the maintainence are key to longevity.

Care is paramount after installation and includes use within design parameters. Not a big chore. But!, it only take a few slip ups, sometimes one good oops, is all it takes to lose capacity prematurely and permanently.

Some systems are unattended seasonally and some owners are just not for the scheduled chore.

I have small AGM (sealed) batteries for cheap imported electric scooters of all things that have done countless heroic things over the last 10 years i have brutally punished them in fleets of scooters, solar projects, portable power, loaned out repeatedly, sent to Burningman! Miles and miles and night lights, radio etc. Out of 8 pairs of 12v 10ah batteries, i have 2 pairs left, only because i was running a dvd and display without a low voltage disconnect and was careless with changing out batteries. Lost 3 that way...they dont like to be drawn down to 6-8v!

Thanks for your responses. We are going to go with the Trojan flooded batteries.