HVAC in Hawaii is salt and moisture wearing a cooling machine. The trade winds were the original system. People block that ventilation, shut the single-wall house or the framed house, and then ask a condenser to replace the breeze. Salt air eats coils, cabinets, and connections. A windward house fights humidity. A leeward house fights heat and glare and still takes salt. Say which failure you actually have.
There is no heating season to design around and no freeze to blame. If the equipment is dead, say dead. If it runs and the rooms stay wet, say that. A clogged condensate line in this humidity shuts a system down and stains a wall that has nowhere to hide the water. Filters load up with salt mist. A condenser sitting in the trades takes spray until the cabinet is rust.
Window units in thin single-wall houses drip into the same sill the termites are using. Ducts in a newer house may sit in a hot space over a low-slope roof. An ohana added later may have its own machine, a borrowed machine, or a door propped instead of either. Those are different calls from the main house. Ask what has already been ruled out. A part name without that story is a guess.
Replacement has to respect corrosion and the electrical service. Matched indoor and outdoor equipment matters if both are being changed. If the house only feels right with every window shut, the ventilation you blocked is part of the complaint. If you want the breeze most days and the machine only when the air goes still, say that. A rusty disconnect, or a condenser that hums and moves nothing, belongs in the first sentence you tell.
Say cooling, the town, and whether the unit is dead or simply failing to dry the rooms. Mention salt on the cabinet, a blocked breeze, or an ohana that was never tied in. Humid rain will not pause for an overflowing pan. Call the number on this page.