The formation of a gas film around an electrode is at the origin of the electrochemical discharges in aqueous solutions and in molten salts. The study of the electrochemical discharge phenomenon from the current signal point of view is conducted to identify the gas film formations and the following discharges. This is performed using the wavelet analysis as a denoising tool with the discrete Meyer wavelet as base function. The proposed algorithm allows to measure experimentally the gas film life time and its necessary building time prior to each series of discharges. The accuracy of the algorithm is evaluated using generated signals and its application to real data is demonstrated. From the experimental data, it is concluded that the gas film is more stable at high terminal voltages whereas its formation time decreases with it. Electrochemical and thermal interpretations for the measured statistics are proposed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.