OK then... What would you do if this was happening to you? Live with it?
If IO and Kent is consistent, that's great and all, but then WTF is going on here???

If it's not the salt, and it's not what I'm doing to it, and it's not the temp ... what's left? The water?

what could possibly be wrong with RO water?
I thought maybe there are other things to consider, like, maybe you should add half of the salt, let it mix, then add the rest an hour later or something. I thought maybe the issue could be that I'm taking it from 1.000 to 1.025 within 3-5 minutes.
But if not ....