Do boilers normally just work?

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We had a new boiler fitted in May 2017. It was fitted by a plumber who was sub-contracted by a builder who was doing some other work for us. Since fitting we have had endless problems with it. It just keeps going off suddenly. We can normally sort it out by pressing the reset button or turning the socket off and back on again.
In April we went back to the builder and he sent and paid for a different plumber who corrected some of the work which he said had been badly done. He moaned a bit about it but did pay for that. Since I've had the heating on again this year there have been many occasions when it's just switched itself off. As I said I can get it back on again but it's a real nuisance. It's going through a phase at the moment where I'm having to do that a couple of times a day.
Do you think I can go back to the builder again? He seemed to think it was outside any time he should be concerned about even back in April but from my side I paid thousands of pounds for a boiler that has never done more than a couple of weeks without a problem.

Have you got a remote thermostat control box?

Yep they normally just work. Had ours fitted in 2016 & never had any problems. In our house prior to this one we also had a new boiler fitted and no problem with that one for over a decade.
Does the boiler itself have some sort of warranty? I’m sure ours had a manufacture guarantee for 2 years. I don’t think after this amount of time the builder would help tbh despite you having problems since it was fitted.
Have you changed batteries in the thermostat thing if it’s one that speaks via WiFi to the boiler? We did at one time, in the old house, have to keep pressing reset and then realised it was the battery.

I'd get it looked at, boilers have certain safety features which will cause them to automatically if they're not vented properly.
Is it under warranty? You could contact the manufacturer direct if so and potentially they could send one of their own engineers to check it.

that was supposed to say shut down automatically.

Thank you. I think it is something to do with the thermostat. We are thinking of moving it to see if that makes any difference

I have had 4 combination boilers in 20 years. My newest boiler is the most expensive I could afford and so far, fingers crossed, it is just sitting in the futility cupboard looking sleek and competent with a big blue eye staring confidently at me. Can you tell I am pleased. My current plumber did all he could to fix the last one and has just come to the conclusion that the cheaper boilers have a lot of plastic components which degrade after about 5 years, the time most first time buyers own a home for. Anyone to buy a spare external expansion vessel?

Mine isn't a combi boiler. And I think it's a pretty good one in theory. I certainly didn't ask to find the cheapest although I'm very ignorant about these things. It's a Vaillant if that helps.

I'm pretty sure that Vaillant offer some sort of guarantee for the first year (or two?). I'd be inclined to give them a call and see if they can get someone out to fix it. They're a quality manufacturer, not bargain basement stuff.

Does the boiler turn itself off when the room thermostat reaches the temperature you have set it at. Is it the heating, hot water or both.

I get the boiler serviced annually but yes other than that it just works, touch wood.
Yours doesn't sound right at all. I would get onto the builder again and failing him, the boiler manufacturer.

Our boiler has never broken down and has always worked. It was in the house before we moved in, and we've been here 21 years.

The thermostat may need rebinding with the boiler. If you google the make/model and rebinding you’ll get instructions.

We have had two Vaillants (on the advice of architect BIL) and they are solid, well built boilers IMO with good customer service. We did have trouble with the latest ( 2005!) one after it was installed - kept randomly shutting off, rather like yours OP. The installers came out to look at it, Vaillant came to look at it but it's tricky when it is something intermittent. Eventually another Vaillant engineer came to look, prior to replacement - which would have meant messily moving parts of units etc- and was about to go when he took a really close look and found that a simple piece of wiring wasn't fully seated properly - it was this that was causing all the trouble.

Valliants are known to be good boilers, so therefore worth chasing the problem imo.

What kind of control do you have? We have some kind of WiFi Tybox thermostat on our newish boiler. Oh how I wish we had our old dial on/off box on the wall.

Forever moving it around the house/kickstarting it in the fridge. Or it goes on at random times (boiler is in attic, also rubbish idea as it overrides if it goes under 5 degrees). Hate it.

I'm in a council flat, I moved in just after a Valliant combi boiler was installed, I've been in the flat just over 5 years & my boiler breaks down at least once a year, the same problem every time, it shows up F75 as a fault & won't fire up, the repairman replaces a sensor every time. I'm glad I don't have to pay to get it repaired.

If it is shutting down, then something is probably causing the safety mechanism to trip and you need to find the cause to solve it.

Boilers are like cars: they should just work, but every so often you get one that for no perceptible reason is totally unreliable.

They also need servicing every year, so that's what I'd do first.

Ours used to shut down a lot. Apparently the outlet needed some sort of protective hood because on cold days, condensation on the outlet was making it turn off. It could be something that simple.

The only time my Vaillant has failed to work in five years is immediately after it was installed. They checked it worked, left, then it wouldn't come back on again! It was a faulty thermostat box, easily replaced. You need someone put to look at yours as what you're experiencing isn't normal.

Ours is a Vaillant, very old, serviced every year, only gone wrong twice in the last ten years. Of course they should just work. Something's definitely wrong with yours or how it was installed, OP.

I have a Viessmann. In ten years it's been repaired once, when they changed a part FOC. That part was out of guarantee, but they'd found it an unreliable part and modified it on the later models. I mailed the company and the sent their regional agent. My original installer had retired.