In my house, the heater basically stops working every year and my dad put some like “bandaid” solution over it with manipulating some wiring, idk what they do. But like, every year, the heater would stop working like several times throughout the winter and constanly needs to be fixed. But this year it just stopped working completely. Like I google it and those heaters are like $2000 to $2500 brand new, so yea, I get it, parents want to save money, but like, having the heat stop few times a year feels like living in a developing country tbh 😓. So now I’m basically just relying on those portable heater things to stay warm, and my cat is feeling too cold so she’s staying in bedrooms most of the time because its where the portable heaters are at, when she normally just wanders the entire house.
During the time when I grew up in my parents house, the heat failed exactly once, and there the heating system has to be replaced. It didn’t fail before, it didn’t fail after. It didn’t have any short term “hiccups”, ever. So to answer your question: Once in like 20 years.
Since I’m living on my own, I’ve had trouble starting the very old gas stove for the apartment twice, and each time at the beginning of the heating season. Once it’s running, it just works. The thing is 60ish years old btw. and technicians refuse to touch it for fear of liability. Basically works fine since I cleaned it properly the last time it refused to start.
Heating should be reliable, and it usually just is. What you’re describing is not normal. I don’t even know anyone who has recurring issues with their heat.