You should have either a vent valve or a tube (going to the head tank or the float box) on each opening on top of the pre-heater to vent air if needed. Much of the need will depend on a few factors like the head of sap (or concentrate) above the outlet and the design of the connections and piping from the pre-heater to the inlet float box.
I built my own pre-heater out of copper tubing and I have 4 vents on my pre-heater. My head tank bottom is about 16-18" above the outlet on the pre-heater and from there the piping has a slight drop until it gets over the float box. There it drops straight down and then ells to enter the float box which is valved. I have never needed to open the vents. That being said, I would never assemble one without vents.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.