I cleaned my vicks vaporizer -- it had a bunch of hard water build up. When I plugged it back in I get the light and it snaps and crackles.... but no steam.

SOURCE: my vaporizer is making a spitting sound -

No salt, unless you had 0 steam - to stop water spit, throughly clean the water tank, just as clean as new. It will work like new if the tank is as clean as new! I dont know where the small particles of dirt come from, but trust me, I just went thru this with mine, it's got dirt in it!

SOURCE: vicks steam vaporizer

i do apologize for the inconvenience but the unit will need to be cleaned by hand or you can go to a local hardware store and get a solution that you put in your water to help kill the residue. it's basically from your hard water. now if you do it by hand you will need to get a soft toothbrush. you'll have to scrub the coils. then rinse the particals away. now doing this the unit needs to be turned off and cooled. after you do the cleaning you can run it like normal. if you have any other concerns or questions please feel free to ask.

SOURCE: I bought our Vicks vaporizer and it worked great

When you say you added apinch of salt I asked my wife and she says that is the measure that she uses. I doubt that you have to much salt but you can flush out your vaporizer with warm water while the unit is running. I would run two or three times for 1-2 hours each then remove element and rinse withe warm water.Also rinse out container and refill with warm water to fill line,make sure you don't overfill as this can cause the spitting. I would add about 1/4 cup of pure vinegar and let unit run. If you have hard water or high mineral content this should help to clean it.
I hope this helps you but if it doesn't I would return it as defective. Thank you

SOURCE: We have a water softener and I think the water has

If your softener is working properly, you should never get any salt in your water. The salt is used only to reactivate the ionic media in your softener cartridge, and during the backflush cycle, all that salt is removed, down to PPM (Parts Per Million) levels.
In any case, even if you used salt water in your vaporizer, it would not increase the amount of steam that it produces. Salt water has a higher boiling point than fresh water. You would also notice salt buildup inside the tank as the water level goes down.
The Vicks Vaporizer works by using only heat to produce steam- the hotter it gets, the more steam it makes. The only practical way to get too much steam outside of a malfunction that causes your heating element to get abnormally hot would be if you live at a very high altitude where water boils at a lower temperature.
High humidity in your home will make it appear as if your vaporizer is making too much steam since the surrounding air will be less capable of absorbing it.
A slightly "off topic" note- if you chose the Vicks Vaporizer/humidifier and have children, you have made a wise decision. Because it produces water vapor by heating instead of ultrasonics, contaminants and minerals (such as salt, iron, calcium, etc.) remain in the tank and will not enter the vapor stream.