Could be sediment from an aging water heater as well. I recently did the same thing to my grandmother's Hotpoint (see Plastic Hotpoint thread) because the "Hot" side was barely trickling, and I mean SLOOOWWW. However, the "Cold" side worked fine, so I immediately knew what the problem was. Her water heater is from 1985 which can explain that problem, and the little water coming out was a tan color. I freed up the stuck "main" valves, shut 'em off, disconnected the machine, and sure enough, there was 10 years' worth of sediment clogging both screens! Even though they were plastic, they were broken and corroded, so I went to Home Depot and picked up some new metal filter screens and burst-proof hoses. After giving the water valve a thorough cleaning (sediment can and will damage a solenoid valve), and wiping the machine down (important even though many may not think so...) with Windex, I popped in the new filters, reconnected the new hoses, slid it back into place, fired it up, and guess what...the "Hot" side was going at full force! Now it looks and works like new!
Since our water heater is tankless, sediment doesn't seem to be a problem, but it's amazing what this little procedure does to both the performance and life of the machine. Even if sediment isn't in the water, changing the filter screens is like night and day. In my GE Portable, replacing the old, bent, rusted filters as well as cleaning the water valve really improved the fill rate.
Now onto replacing the filters in the Westy, '98, and '82 Kenmores...
